Cynics point out that when a party turns to a woman leader, it is often handing her a hot mess. That’s certainly so with the federal Liberals, now choosing their first female leader in eight decades.
For the Liberals, and for Sussan Ley, 63, this is a bittersweet milestone. The odds are overwhelmingly against her chances of taking the Liberals from opposition to government.
Given Labor’s massive majority, it will be virtually impossible for the Liberals to regain office in under two terms (when Ley would be in her late 60s). The way these things go, there’s likely to be more than one opposition leader in the next half dozen years.
