Liberal hopeful branded ‘extreme’ as foes circle leader
Tess Ikonomou |
Labor has attacked Liberal leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie as “extreme” as the conservative’s backers shore up support ahead of an expected challenge for the party’s top job.
A leadership spill is shaping up for early February when parliament returns, but a date is yet to be locked in after a week of chaos that resulted in the coalition splitting up for the second time since the 2025 federal election.
Liberal defence spokesman Angus Taylor and Mr Hastie, who quit the front bench in October to speak out on immigration policies, are considered the leading candidates to challenge Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
Mr Hastie’s backers believe he has a majority among the conservatives, Liberal sources told AAP, but Mr Taylor is garnering more support from moderates concerned about his rival’s brand of right-wing politics.
Polling has shown One Nation gaining support at the expense of the coalition, spooking many, not least within the Liberals’ former junior partners the Nationals.
Cabinet minister Murray Watt said Mr Hastie would be the “most right-wing Liberal Party leader that the country has ever seen” if he were to successfully supplant Ms Ley.
“Everyone understands that Sussan Ley is on borrowed time, but it’s not as if the Liberals have good choices to make,” he said on Sunday.
“Either the most extreme leader they’ve ever had, or a bumbling (former) shadow treasurer who wanted to lift taxes.”
Some within the Liberal Party have criticised Mr Taylor for what they say was a lack of economic policy development during the last term of parliament.
Liberal frontbencher and moderate Julian Leeser said Ms Ley had his “unequivocal support”.
“During this period where Australia has been in a period of national crisis, she has shown the leadership that the prime minister has failed to do,” he said.
Asked if Mr Hastie, who has publicly aired his leadership ambitions, would be effective at countering rising support for One Nation, Mr Leeser replied: “Sussan Ley is our leader and Sussan Ley is the person that I support in that role.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the coalition had been “mirroring” One Nation’s policies, resulting in both the Liberals and Nationals shifting to the right.
“You can’t fight One Nation by being a lighter version of them,” he said.
“We’ve seen them become closer and closer as the coalition have shifted to the right and what that does is legitimise some of the hard-right policies that One Nation has.”
Liberal insiders have spoken of internal anger towards Nationals leader David Littleproud for having blown up the coalition’s political alliance on Thursday, which is being viewed as an act of intervention in the senior coalition party.
Mr Littleproud has repeatedly denied he demanded Ms Ley resign in a phone call during the week.
Three Nationals senators who resigned from the shadow cabinet after voting against Labor’s hate speech laws needed to be reinstated before the parties could reconcile, he said.
“That’s the threshold question that our party room took,” Mr Littleproud added.
“That’s the threshold question that was given to Sussan, she wasn’t prepared to accept it.”
By voting against Labor’s laws, an agreed position, the three senators broke the convention of shadow cabinet solidarity, triggering their resignations – which were accepted by Ms Ley.
AAP
