Western Australian MP Andrew Hastie has been tipped to challenge Sussan Ley for leadership of the Liberal party with insiders saying he’s close to having the numbers to force her out.
Last week the coalition spectacularly imploded over voting on the government’s hate speech legislation and by the end of the week the coalition between the Liberals and Nationals was over and the leadership positions of both Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud appeared to be on shaky ground.
Following the terrorist attack in Bondi the opposition criticised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for his response to the tragedy arguing that he should set up a national Royal Commission into the incident, and immediately recall parliament to pass new laws to limit hate speech in Australia.
Sussan Ley fronted the media daily calling out the Prime Minister for his lack of action, and even took aim at Foreign Minister Penny Wong for not publicly shedding tears over the tragedy. At a press conference a few days before Christmas Ley said she hadn’t seen Wong “shed a single tear”.
The Prime Minister approval rating took a hit, and he relented, ordering a Royal Commission, recalling parliament and putting forward legislation.
Once back in Canberra though things quickly fell apart for the coalition. The legislation was originally presented as an omnibus bill combining guy control legislation with new laws against hate speech and vilification. The Nationals were opposed to the gun section of the bill, while many others said the vilification protections went too far.
There was also criticism of the legislation for only covering hate speech based on race, leaving other minorities unprotected. To get the legislation through the PM split the bill in two, working with The Greens to pass the fire arms section. Many of the provisions of the hate speech section were removed and a watered down version was presented.
The Liberals largely voted for it, one senator crossed the floor, others were absent from the vote. Some Nationals voted against it, some Nationals abstained, and one crossed the floor and voted in favour of it – the party taking every position possible on the issue.
Shadow cabinet members who were Nationals were accused of breaking cabinet solidarity and Ley called for their resignations. After she accepted the resignations of Senators Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald, all of the Nationals resigned from the Shadow Cabinet. The next morning Nationals leader David Littleproud said the coalition was breaking up again, and could not exit while Ley remained leader.
Ley’s leadership of the party has always been tenuous, following the party’s election defeat last year which included the loss of leader Peter Dutton, she won the leadership position against the more conservative Angus Taylor. Hastie opted not to run for the position despite being tipped as much needed generational change.
In the months that followed Hastie quit the front bench after putting forward policy ideas that were outside of his shadow portfolio, returning to the back bench gave him the freedom to speak more widely. Ley was also forced to sack Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after she publicly refused to endorse Ley’s leadership.
Appearing on Sunrise this morning former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, who has now defected to One Nation, said he believed Hastie now had the numbers to topple Ley from the leadership. At this stage Hastie has yet to say publicly if he’ll challenge, but sources say he has 20 of the 26 votes needed to take over. If a challenge is to be mounted it’s expected to happen in early February ahead of parliament returning.
Ley however appears to be retaining the support of moderate Liberals who have spoken to the media anonymously about how they don’t want to knife the first woman to lead the Liberal party, and arguing that a loss of leadership over shadow cabinet processes would not be deserved.
Concern remains that a leadership challenge could see a three way contest between Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie and the incumbent Sussan Ley, with nobody emerging with a clear victory. Furthermore each of the leaders will be quizzed on their position of the coalition getting back together, something that has a wide range of views across the MPs.
