Ley ‘absolutely not’ behind review leak about Hastie
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has denied leaking internal party documents criticizing a former frontbencher amid tensions within the coalition.
Former Liberal leader Peter Dutton’s comments about an election review targeting the performance of the party’s leadership candidate Andrew Hastie have been leaked to the media, days after the West Australian MP left the frontbench to speak more freely about immigration policy.
Mr Hastie has been touted as the future leader of the Liberal Party, but the opposition leader said he was “absolutely not” behind the leak.
“I made clear to my party room the processes around the review and, as you would expect, there were exclusions by the media and commentators,” he told Nine’s Today program on Thursday.
“Except to say that we had a lively debate about the battle of ideas, which I always welcome.”
The review of the federal election defeat is being led by party grandees Pru Goward and Nick Minchin, who spoke to Mr Dutton about the campaign.
The comments came after NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price wrote to Ms Ley calling for the leak to be stopped and discipline imposed and claiming the Liberal Party was a “clown show”.
Ms Ley said the party’s platform was still being developed following its election defeat.
“I am completely focused on the things that matter to hard-working Australians and have built a serious, credible platform that we will take into the next election,” he said.
“I care about everyone in my party room, but I actually care about Australians too, and I’m proud of the way my team is holding this government to account.”
Shadow attorney general Julian Leeser said the time for party introspection following the election loss must end.
“This period can’t be too long and I think Australians want us to focus on the issues at hand and that’s certainly what I’m doing,” he told ABC Radio.
“We need people to focus on what the Australian people sent us here to do, which is to hold the government to account.”
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said it was inappropriate for Mr Dutton’s comments to be leaked to the media, but said party scrutiny would be critical to the future of the coalition.
“Whatever the review says, we already know one of the key takeaways, which is that we need a policy-led recovery in the coalition,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“We’ve had a huge failure on politics, we’ve had a massive failure on communication, but ultimately we’re in politics to present ideas that will improve the country and I don’t think we did that very well in the last parliament.”
