Talent over factions: Angus Taylor and Sussan Ley promise to end the Liberal civil war and fight PM

The combatants and their supporters will hit the phones on Monday as they seek to win over undecided colleagues ahead of the federal Liberal Party parliamentary team voting for a new leader and deputy leader in Canberra on Tuesday morning.

Geoff ChambersCHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Shadow Treasurer and Federal Member for Hume, Angus Taylor and Louise Taylor at home in Gundary, NSW. Picture: Martin Ollman

6 min read

6:26AMMay 12, 2025

Angus Taylor has pledged to reward talent over factional allegiances, elevate more women into leadership positions and make the Liberal Party campaign machine “fitter, flatter, faster and more focused” ahead of his showdown with Sussan Ley on Tuesday.

In an interview with The Australian, the opposition Treasury spokesman said the Coalition must focus on policies that “go for growth” and allow a full range of technologies to deliver “the affordable, reliable energy Australians want”.

Mr Taylor and Ms Ley – who spent Mother’s Day at home with their families on Sunday – are locked in a tight contest to replace Peter Dutton as opposition leader.

Angus Taylor declares push for Liberal leadership

In a video statement released by Ms Ley on the weekend, the Acting Opposition Leader said “we have enormous depth of talent in our partyroom, and I want to draw on all of it over the next three years”.

“We will develop strong policy offerings through robust party room processes so we can demonstrate we will deliver better outcomes for all Australians. We need to change, the Liberal Party must respect modern Australia, reflect modern Australia and represent modern Australia,” Ms Ley said.

‘My election as leader of the Liberal Party would send a very strong signal that we understand that things must be done differently.”

Sussan Ley surrounded by extended family at home in Albury, NSW. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Responding to concerns raised by some Liberal MPs about NSW factionalism infecting the federal partyroom, Mr Taylor said “our numbers are now so depleted that if we start selecting what roles people play based on tribal allegiances we will not succeed, full stop”.

“We have to reach across the divide and have the very best people on the ground in every area,” Mr Taylor told The Australian. “The team is so small now, relative to what it has been in the past, that there’s lots of work to do for everybody as long as we are aligned in the belief that the Labor Party can’t deliver what Australia needs and we can.”

Mr Taylor, who cited strong working relationships with junior ministers he had previously collaborated with, including Tim Wilson, Dean Smith and James McGrath, said: “It’s talent and merit and what we can offer first, and all of those tribal allegiances need to come a distant second.

“I’m not naive to the fact that they exist, but I do believe we can bridge across those if we all recognise that this is a massive regroup and rebuild job we’ve got to do and we’ve got to get back in the fight.”

After former state and territory Liberal leaders Gladys Berejiklian, Barry O’Farrell, Jeff Kennett, Nick Greiner and Shane Stone endorsed Ms Ley as leader, former prime minister Tony Abbott on Sunday supported Mr Taylor and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the new Liberal Party leadership team, after Senator Price said she would nominate for deputy leader.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: Chloe Erlich

Supporters of Ms Ley said she was running an open ticket that wasn’t predicated on any deals. They also said she would base her frontbench on merit and putting the best team on the pitch.

It is understood that opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien is considering a separate run for the deputy leadership after Dan Tehan pulled out of the race. Ms Ley, who has been accused by rivals of launching her leadership campaign ahead of the election to gain an advantage, has strongly pushed the need for more women in the party.

Asked about how he would recruit and promote women, Mr Taylor said: “We’ve got to reconnect to significant parts of our community that we failed to connect to in the election, and that includes women.

“That has to be an absolute priority for us. Strong women have been around me all my life and I want more of that, not less. This is really personally important to me.

“Having a wonderful woman join the Liberal Party like Jacinta, we should absolutely welcome her with open arms.

“She brings much to the table and I will keep welcoming great women to the Liberal Party wherever I possibly can.”

On whether the Liberal Party should adopt a gender quota system, Mr Taylor said: “Attracting good women to the party is about attracting talent.

“We, as the Liberal Party, cannot confine ourselves to any one group.

“We’ve got to find talented candidates, talented volunteers, talented people to work in our organisation, talented campaigners wherever we can find them and clearly that includes women who are 50 per cent of our population.”

Angus Taylor at home in Gundary, NSW. Picture: Martin Ollman

As energy minister in the Morrison government, Mr Taylor adopted a technology neutral approach to strengthening the nation’s power grid.

After Labor launched a highly effective scare campaign targeting Mr Dutton’s nuclear energy policy, Mr Taylor said “we’ve got some serious reflection to do about Labor’s weaponisation during the campaign, about what that means about the policy we took to the election”.

“Now is not the time to make decisions about that but it is certainly the time to begin the reflection on that,” he said.

“What I do know is that the approach that seems to be working around the world is freeing up the supply side and allowing the full range of technologies, technology not taxes, as a way to deliver that affordable, reliable energy Australians want.

“And I think we’ve got to get back to our roots on this one, which is Liberals have always believed in choice and the full range.”

In response to agitation in Nationals ranks and comments made by Liberal senator Dave Sharma on Sky News about revisiting the merits of a Coalition agreement, Mr Taylor described himself as a “Coalitionist … I always have been and I always will be”.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to win 50 per cent of the seats plus one, and that requires a Coalition,” he said.

“The people who will want to vote Liberal, if they feel that we’re up for it, are aspirational, they believe in the power and importance of small business, they see the crucial role of families. These are very widely held views across our country and we share those views across our Coalition.”

Dan Tehan pulled out of the Liberal leadership race. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Taylor, who unlike other Liberals in NSW managed to secure a swing towards him, identified as a top priority the importance of modernising the Liberal Party’s campaign machine.

“We have to organise and campaign differently. We need an organisation and a campaign strategy, which is fitter, flatter, faster and more focused,” he said. “That’s because we live in communities now that are more fragmented than ever.

“We must do better at messaging to those groups, whether they be women or younger Australians or Hindu Australians, Muslim Australians, Chinese Australians, right across the board.

“On the policy side … we have to make sure that we have those policies out in the field early and the work being done early at the beginning of the term, not later in the term to attract those groups of voters, including women.”

Liberal Party federal director Andrew Hirst will confirm the names of which candidates and MPs currently ahead in their lower house seats can participate in the ballot on Tuesday.

The two most likely additions are moderate Liberal Gisele Kapterian, who is ahead in the north Sydney seat of Bradfield, and conservative LNP MP Terry Young, who holds a narrow lead in the southeast Queensland seat of Longman.