Sussan Ley leaves the Liberal Party’s room after having been dumped as the first-ever female leader. Photo: Chris Johnson.
The Liberal Party has dumped its first-ever federal female leader just nine months into the job, in a devastating partyroom vote for Sussan Ley, who lost to Angus Taylor 17 votes to 34.
Victorian Senator Jane Hume was elected deputy leader, beating Ted O’Brien, Dan Tehan and Melissa Price.
She is the first Senator to hold the deputy leadership role since 1990, a role traditionally held by a member of the House of Representatives.
Immediately after the vote, Ms Ley announced she would resign from parliament. This means there will be a by-election in her giant seat of Farrer, which covers Griffith, Albury, Leeton, Deniliquin and extends to the South Australian border.
Liberal MPs and Senators met at Parliament House on Friday morning (13 February) to decide Ms Ley’s fate.
With her support fast disappearing by the evening before, a vote to go ahead with a spill of positions was easily passed.
A leadership ballot was then held, and Mr Taylor emerged as the victor.
Ms Ley emerged from the meeting flanked by some of her supporters, but said nothing to the waiting media pack.
She smiled a little as she walked by, then looked straight ahead as she walked on.
As other Liberals emerged from the party room, some expressed their delight at the outcome while others said nothing at all.
Mr Taylor is yet to front the media.
Mr Tehan, who quit Ms Ley’s frontbench late on Thursday, went straight to the ABC’s new studios to declare he had voted for Mr Taylor.
“What we’ve been through over the last 10 or 11 months has been incredibly difficult – a lot of challenges after the huge election defeat in May,” he said.
“Then obviously with us, we saw the splitting in the Coalition, and then we saw some fairly catastrophic polling.
“The feedback that I was getting was that things did need to change.”
Labor has immediately launched pre-prepared attack ads with the slogan “Angus Taylor – Just another Liberal” and highlighting his track record while serving in Scott Morrison’s government.
“Taylor was the architect of Liberal policies for higher taxes, bigger deficits, getting rid of work from home, sacking of tens of thousands of frontline workers and a $600 billion taxpayer-funded nuclear scheme,” one ad says.
“And Taylor worked from day one to undermine the Liberals’ first female leader.”
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, however, said Mr Taylor’s election as Opposition Leader places the Liberals in a far better position to win the next election.
The latest polling placed the Liberal Party’s primary vote at a dismal 18 per cent, behind a surging One Nation vote on 27 per cent.
Ley to quit politics
Shortly after the vote, Ms Ley called a press conference to thank her supporters, express her respect for the party’s decision, and to wish Mr Taylor well.
She said there were “genuinely no hard feelings” against Mr Taylor or those who voted for him.
“My mother had just died. One of the things she said was when something ends in sadness, don’t dwell on the disappointments. Be grateful that you had it at all,” Ms Ley said.
“So today, I want to express gratitude to the Liberal Party that I have belonged to and loved for more than half of my adult life.
“I thank you for your loyalty, your unflinching loyalty.”
The now former opposition leader also announced she would soon be resigning from parliament, which will create by-election for her NSW seat of Farrer
“I will be spending the next couple of weeks thanking the amazing people of Farrer and expressing my gratitude today for the honour of representing them all 25 years,” she said.
“Shortly thereafter, I will be tendering my resignation to the Speaker.
“I’m not sure what comes next. I look forward to stepping away completely and comprehensively from public life, to spend time with my family.”
Farrer by-election
Election analyst Antony Green says the Coalition will face a “messy” by-election in the seat of Farrer. Ley has held the seat since 2001 when she took it from the National Party after the retirement of Tim Fischer. She currently holds it with a 6.4 per cent margin.
Mr Green said the Nationals will compete with the Liberals for the seat, and with One Nation surging, it sets up what he calls a “conservative slugfest”.
Original Article published by Chris Johnson on Region Canberra.
