Liberal Party leadership spill tomorrow, Angus Taylor to challenge Sussan Ley
Updated ,first published
The Liberal Party will meet at 9am on Friday, where Angus Taylor will challenge Sussan Ley for the party leadership.
Taylor announced his bid for the party leadership, five MPs resigned from the opposition front bench and Taylor’s supporters formally called a meeting to vote on a chaotic Thursday morning at Parliament House in Canberra.
Unusually, Taylor did not specifically announce his desire to run for leadership as he left the front bench late Wednesday. Inside a social media video Posting mid-morning on Thursday, Taylor said: “I’m running for leader of the Liberal Party because I believe Australia is worth fighting for.” he said.
Saying that Australia was in trouble and the Liberal party had lost its way, Taylor said the only way to confront a “failed” Labor government was “strong and determined leadership”.
“I am committed to serving you, the Australian people, and providing you with a strong alternative that will revive the great Australian dream,” he said, concluding by warning that “we are running out of time.”
Right-wing powerbroker Senator James Paterson called Ley a good person and a good Liberal at a news conference shortly after noon to explain why he was resigning from his shadow ministry.
“He’s been dealt a lot of tough hands over the last nine months, but I no longer had confidence in him being able to turn this ship around,” Paterson said.
He described Taylor as “the smartest policy mind in the shadow cabinet”. He is a man of deep faith, courage and values, and most importantly, Angus understands that this is a do-or-die moment for the Liberal Party. “We must change or we will cease to exist.”
MPs Phil Thompson and Jess Collins wrote to chief opposition leader Aaron Violi earlier on Thursday, calling for a party room meeting.
Taylor’s side is confident they have the numbers to win, but other MPs believe Taylor’s bid, which was delayed for hours on Wednesday, has been confused and lost support among MPs.
Thompson, Claire Chandler, Matt O’Sullivan, James Paterson and Jonno Duniam left their portfolios on Thursday morning. The resignations of Paterson and Duniam are more significant because they were in Ley’s leadership group and Duniam was an ally of Andrew Hastie, so his support for Taylor was not guaranteed.
Victorian senator Jane Hume has begun lobbying to become deputy leader of the Liberal Party, while Mid Bench MP Tim Wilson is being mentioned as a potential shadow treasurer, currently held by Ley’s deputy Ted O’Brien.
Hume is not running as a joint candidate with Taylor, but will only run for an acting role if Taylor’s leadership bid is successful.
Hume, Victoria’s well-known moderate senator, is seen as one of the party’s most energetic and articulate media performers and the kind of Liberal who could appeal to metropolitan voters.
He has been in the background since the last election when he made two major campaign mistakes: announcing that the Coalition was abandoning its work-from-home policy and making a statement about “Chinese spies” being weaponized in Labor’s attacks.
Speaking on 2GB radio on Thursday morning, Hume gave a glowing assessment of Taylor, saying: “He’s a very deep thinker in our party and a great intellect. He’s got incredible experience across a range of portfolios… He’s very good in city seats, but he comes from a country seat himself and is naturally a country boy… he’s a very humane person.”
Wilson, Zoe McKenzie, Dan Tehan and Melissa McIntosh have also been suggested as supporting options for Taylor.
Frontrunner Andrew Wallace said the majority of Liberal MPs wanted Ley to stay, and Moderate Andrew Bragg argued Ley deserved more time.
Bragg said on Sky News this morning: “I think Susan has been dealt a pretty tough hand. She’s a tough person and I think she needs to be given more time in that role, because I think most normal people would expect 12 months in a job to be at least a reasonable undertaking.” “It’s not clear to me what the alternative vision is for Australia.”
Also speaking to 2GB radio, Goldstein MP Tim Wilson said: “If the motion to dissolve the leadership is successful, I want to hear from the candidates, because what I want is clarity and vision about where we need to go, because we need to make it clear who we are fighting for.”
Taylor’s delay in speaking to the media on Wednesday night surprised some colleagues. His office deleted a video announcing his move that he posted on social media Wednesday night, before releasing a new video about his plans Thursday morning.
Labor quickly broke Taylor’s record as shadow treasurer on Thursday.
Environment Minister Murray Watt said on Nine’s: “The problem for Angus Taylor was that he was Peter Dutton’s right-hand man. He led the charge to scrap taxes on Australians, cut budget deficits, cut home working, lay off tens of thousands of frontline workers and, most importantly, introduce nuclear power to raise energy prices.” Today to show.
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Paul Sakkal is the chief political correspondent. It has previously covered Victorian politics and won the Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect with: X or email.
Nick Newling is the federal politics correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.
