Australian Liberal Party’s first female leader Sussan Ley has vowed to “step away completely and comprehensively from public life” after being ousted from her post.
Ms Ley was replaced with former shadow defence minister Angus Taylor as the conservatives seek to rebuild their image. She made history in May by becoming the first female leader to lead the Liberals after the opposition party suffered a resounding defeat in last year’s election.
She served only nine months in the job before she suffered a defeat in a ballot of Liberal members of parliament as the party grappled with poor poll numbers and infighting within the conservative alliance known as the Liberal-National Coalition.
Mr Taylor, a leading figure in the party’s conservative wing and the son of a fourth-generation sheep farmer, defeated Ms Ley 34 votes to 17.
In a social media post, Mr Taylor said: “It’s an immense honour to be elected as leader of the Liberal Party. I am looking forward to working with my deputy, Jane Hume to serve the Australian people.”
Mr Taylor assumes leadership of a diminished parliamentary party at a historic low in public support, facing a strained coalition alliance and mounting electoral threats from a resurgent One Nation and community-backed independents.
Recent opinion polls indicate the opposition coalition has lost a significant number of voters to far-right populist Senator Pauline Hanson and her anti-immigration party, One Nation.
Two separate polls in January showed One Nation’s primary vote had overtaken that of the coalition.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Taylor acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead, saying the Liberals’ position was the worst ever and that the party might not survive if an election were held now.
Following the defeat, Ms Ley said she will quit politics altogether and resign as an MP, triggering a by-election in her rural New South Wales seat of Farrer, which she has represented since 2001. She said she would pursue her hobby in aviation.
She also criticised her former colleagues and critics for allegedly agitating against her leadership from day one.
“It is important that the new leader gets clear air, something that is not always afforded to leaders, but which in the present moment is more important than ever,” she said.
“I will be spending the next couple of weeks thanking the amazing people of Farrer, and expressing my gratitude to them for the honour of representing them for 25 years. Shortly thereafter, I will be tendering my resignation to the speaker.”
Her tenure lasted only 276 days. In his first press conference as the leader of the party, Mr Taylor said his two priorities would be to "restore our standard of living, opposing the Labor government's tax and spending policies that he said were increasing inflation and keeping interest rates high.
"The choice is simple for the Liberal Party: change or die, and I choose change," Mr Taylor said.
Additional reporting by agencies
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