Western Australian Liberal MP Andrew Hastie will not run for the leadership of the Liberal party according to The West Australian.
Hastie was one of four names that had been touted as a future leader for the party following their humiliating election loss that saw them lose seats including the one previous held by leader Peter Dutton.
On the current counting the Albanese government has been returned with an increased majority and 85 seats. The Liberals are projected to hold potentially 39 seats, with 10 seats going to independents.
Hastie bucked the trend increasing the level of support in his Canning electorate. But his campaign was largely devoid of Liberal party branding.
With the Liberals losing Moore in Perth’s northern suburbs Hastie stands as the only Liberal MP in Perth metropolitan area, unless the party also succeeds in the new seat of Bullwinkel. The last update saw over 76 per cent of votes counted and Labor’s Trish Cook was ahead of the Liberals Matt Moran by just 28 votes.
There have been suggestions, reported on Sky News, that a unity ticket may emerge with Angus Taylor as the proposed new leader and Shadow Foreign Minister Dan Tehan as his deputy.
Tehan has also been suggested as having leadership potential, while current Deputy Leader Sussan Ley has also been suggested as a frontrunner.
One MP who has made it clear she won’t be supporting Taylor for the leadership role in NSW senator Hollie Hughes. Hughes was relegated to an unwinnable position on the NSW senate ticket and her term will end on 30th June.
On Sky News she’s given a series of interview sharing her view that Taylor is not a suitable leader. She’s accused the Shadow Treasurer of actively campaigning to have her pushed out of the senate selection and has claimed that the numbers for a leadership challenge were being counted during the recent election campaign.
Given the party’s huge slip backwards at the election, many political analysts are predicting the party will be out of government for at least two terms given the massive buffer of seats Labor now holds. A new Opposition leader might struggle to stay on top of the party long enough to still be leading when they make it back into government.
