The Liberal party will be searching for a new leader following current leader Peter Dutton losing his seat of Dickson to Labor’s Ali France.
Yesterday federal election saw a catastrophic result for the party with the leader and several prominent long serving members losing their seats. It was a crushing win for Labor that saw the Coalition lose seats when their ambition was to improve their standing.
In the wake of the defeat, as a new day dawns, four contenders are being suggested as potential leaders as the party moves into a new phase of trying to work out where it all went wrong.
Dan Tehan, 57
Tehan is the member for Wannon is Victoria. There was speculation leading into the election that he may have a tough battle on his hands with Independent Alex Dyson running against his for the third time. But while there was small swing to the former Triple J Breakfast presenter, Tehan has been returned.
Winning seats in Victoria was essential for a Liberal victory, but they failed to claw back any territory. Having a Victorian as their leader might play well at the next election.
Tehan was elected to parliament at the 2010 election, he has served as a minister in both the Turnbull and Morrison governments holding the portfolios of Defence Materiel, Defence Personnel, Veteran’s Affairs, Socia Services, Trade, Education, and Tourism and Investment. Her worked as a civil servant and diplomat before becoming a political adviser.
He is a centrist with the party, and his political career has largely been free of political scandals. The downside is he often appears awkward in media interviews and lacks personality.
Anthony Albanese is the first divorced person to serve as Prime Minister, if Tehan became PM one day he’d be the first person whose been divorced twice to hold the office.
Angus Taylor, 58
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor joined the parliament at the 2013 election. He represents the New South Wales regional seat of Hume. He’s a Rhodes scholar and fourth generation farmer who grew up on a cattle property and served as the President of the NSW Farmer’s Federation.
Prior to joining parliament, he worked as a management consultant for nearly two decades largely in the agriculture space on a global level. He served as a Minister in the Turnbull government as the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation. After the 2016 election he joined the front bench as Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security, and later Minister for Energy under Scott Morrison.
In the wake of the election defeat a lot of the blame is being pointed at Taylor as the opposition’s economic policies and push for nuclear power failed to bring in the votes, many prominent Liberals are publicly saying he should not be rewarded with the leadership position.
During his time in parliament Taylor has made the headlines many times including controversies over water rights, land clearing, presenting an allegedly forged document to parliament, accusations he made up a story about writer Naomi Wolf, concerns about him misquoting a High Court judge, and one time when he appeared to respond to his own social media post saying “Well done Angus” – something which has become a political meme.
Andrew Hastie, 42
Rarely have political leaders come from Western Australia, Labor’s Kim Beasley was the last leader of a major party to hail from the west coast. But the tyranny of distance is not what it used to be, and Zoom has been invented.
Andrew Hastie entered the parliament in 2015 elected at a by-election for the seat of Canning when former representative Don Randall died suddenly while in office.
Hastie served in the SAS prior to his political career and was deployed to Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan. He’s been reelected at each subsequent election since he joined the parliament and has been returned this time with an increased majority, defying the trends.
He campaigned against marriage equality in 2017 and has although he said he would recognise his constituents wishes, he later abstained from voting for the legislation citing his religious beliefs. He has served as the Shadow Minister for Defence under Peter Dutton.
Hastie was largely absent from the national stage during the election campaign and then faced a series of media interviews where he defiantly explained that he stood by previous comments he made saying women were unsuitable to serve in combat roles in the military, while simultaneously supporting the party’s position that women should serve in combat roles.
Sussan Ley, 63
Ley is the oldest name being speculated as leader, as the longest serving MP possibly in contention. She joined the parliament in 2001 and represents the rural NSW electorate of Farrer.
She was a junior minister in the Howard government, serving as parliamentary secretary for Children and Youth Affairs and later Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. In opposition under a succession of leaders she held the shadow portfolios of Housing, Women, Justice and Customs, Assistant Treasury, Employment Participation, and Childcare.
In the Abbott government she was Assistant Minister for Education and later promoted to Minister for Health and Sport, and later Aged Care.
She resigned from the ministry in 2017 after it was revealed she had taken many taxpayer funded trips to Queensland, where he partner was based. Also, on one trip she bought a $795,000 apartment. Ley denied allegations of improper use of taxpayer funds claiming the trips were all required for government business, and the apartment was bought on a whim.
She was promoted under PM Scott Morrison serving as Assistant Minister for Regional Development the Territories, and after the 2019 election win returned to the front bench as Minister for the Environment. In opposition she has served as deputy leader.
Ley has described herself as a feminist, is seen as a moderate within the party. Aside from her apartment scandal she is remembered for appearing in the chamber dressed up as Tina Turner to raise money for charity and raised eyebrows earlier this year when she compared the British settlement of Australia to Elon Musk’s plans to colonise Mars.
Ley was born in Nigeria and grew up in the United Arab Emirates and England before emigrating to Australia as a teenager. Prior to entering politics, she worked as a commercial pilot, farmer and civil servant.
Ley added an additional S to her name in her youth because she followed the belief of numerology, and the additional letter made her name more powerful.
