Will Liberals replace Sussan Ley with Angus Taylor? Party eyes the option
While there is no plan to oust the Liberal leader before the end of the year, backroom discussions have begun about who could replace the party’s first female leader.
Divisions over net zero, missteps by the leader and the Coalition’s record-low 24 per cent primary vote in Newspoll have sharpened the minds of some Liberal MPs considering who could step up if Ley can’t recover.
Taylor, who coined former leader Scott Morrison’s “technology, not taxes” mantra and as energy minister introduced legislation enabling offshore wind power generation, has shown loyalty to Ley after she narrowly beat him in the post-election vote to replace Peter Dutton.
After losing Dutton and Michael Sukkar, Liberal conservatives have been licking their wounds since the disastrous May 3 election.
There have been divisions in conservative ranks about the need for generational change and adopting bolder positions on issues including immigration, nuclear energy and net zero.
Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who have the backing of prominent conservatives outside the parliament and are considered future leaders of the Liberal Party, quit Ley’s frontbench over their concerns about immigration.
The question on the lips of some conservatives is whether the duo should bide their time and leave the messy rebuild to veteran MPs.
Taylor, who was parked by Ley into the defence portfolio, received criticism from colleagues over his role in devising the higher-taxing economic manifesto that Dutton took to the election. Some in Liberal ranks believe Taylor would struggle to lift the Coalition’s standing or compete with Anthony Albanese at the next election, due in 2028.
Others view the Oxford University graduate, Rhodes Scholar and former McKinsey & Co partner as a steady pair of hands who could heal scars from the 2022 and 2025 election defeats. Taylor, who is no fan of Ley’s top lieutenant Alex Hawke, would need to secure strong support from conservative MPs to be elevated as opposition leader.
The flip side to claiming the leadership is that he would likely face undermining and sniping from moderates, similar to what Ley has copped from conservatives during her short tenure as Opposition Leader.
Ley’s strong economic messaging – promising to cut income taxes, slash government spending, unwind Labor’s industrial relations agenda, reduce red tape and end the “culture of dependency” – has been drowned out by ugly internal divisions.
Ley may well stay put if she can land a unified net zero position, keep the Coalition intact, lift polling support, pledge tougher immigration policies, lay blows on Albanese and avoid a messy end to the year.
The saying that “a week is a long time in politics” is very true. Several months is an even longer time for circumstances to improve or implode.
After getting through the next few days, there is one parliamentary sitting week scheduled before the Christmas break. At this stage, Ley is not facing an imminent challenge. But if things don’t change, Ley’s long-term leadership hopes will be challenged.
If Taylor has a second crack for the leadership and wins, he will face many of the same problems dragging down Ley. At this stage of the political cycle, the federal Liberal leadership remains the ultimate poisoned chalice.
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Angus Taylor – the co-architect of the Liberal Party’s policy for a net zero emissions target by 2050 – has emerged as the most likely contender to challenge Sussan Ley.