Australia news live: Sussan Ley to be Liberal party’s first female leader after narrowly defeating Angus Taylor
Sussan Ley wins vote for Liberal leadership
Sussan Ley has won the leadership of the Liberal party, defeating Angus Taylor. She will be the first female leader in the position.
More to come.
Key events
So, who is Sussan Ley?
In the lead up to the leadership vote Ley publicly and privately pitched herself as the best candidate to appeal to sections of the electorate that have deserted the Liberals at the past two elections, particularly women.
Ley – who represents the seat of Farrer in regional NSW – was a cabinet minister under Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, where she held portfolios including health, sport and environment.
She resigned from Turnbull’s frontbench in 2017 after it was revealed she had used taxpayer funds to travel to New Year’s Eve events hosted by a Queensland businesswoman and party donor.
In January, Ley also courted controversy by comparing the arrival of the First Fleet to Elon Musk’s SpaceX seeking to reach Mars. She said:
In what could be compared to Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s efforts to build a new colony on Mars, men in boats arrived on the edge of the known world to embark on that new experiment. A new experiment and a new society.
You will probably also remember in 2023, she read out the names of the 60 women killed in Australia so far that year, and she once dressed up as Tina Turner in parliament to raise money for cancer care.
To save you googling it, I’ve got it here:
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price yet to comment on abandoned bid for deputy leadership
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has left the party room without answering questions after her abandoned bid for the deputy leadership.
Price withdrew her nomination for the role after running mate Angus Taylor was defeated in the leadership ballot.
Asked if her defection from the Nationals to the Liberals was worth it, Price said:
“I’ll be making comments in due course.”
Liberal party needs to understand teals’ popularity, Wallace says
Andrew Wallace has said the party needs to do some soul searching about why voters support the teals.
We have to appoint people on merit. And the party room decided that Sussan was the best person to take us forward. For those seats [where] – like my own on the Sunshine Coast – there was a very strong teal challenge, we need to understand better what was attracting people to vote for a teal.
I’ll be absolutely listening and digging around as to why that happened. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Sussan is an exceptional parliamentarian. I think she will make a great leader.
Former speaker praises Sussan Ley: ‘nothing beats experience’
Wallace said Sussan knows “where all the bodies are buried”:
She was the acting leader, the deputy leader, for the last three years. Sussan is a woman with 24 years’ experience in this place, and I think nothing beats experience in this place.
She knows where all the bodies are buried, she knows the tactics, which is very important in this place, and … she’s been here for 24 years. I think that speaks volumes.
Liberals say Ley’s election proves party is listening to people of Australia
Jane Hume has emerged from the party room, telling media it’s “a new era”.
And now we have the former speaker Andrew Wallace:
We’ve gotta demonstrate that the Liberal party is listening to the people of Australia and learning. I’m very pleased to be a part of that, and it’s time to rebuild and get on with it.
Asked if the party can unite, he said:
One thing the Australian people will not cop is a disunified opposition. And we need to now unite and rebuild. We can’t rebuild if we’re not united. And I think everybody in that room understands that, and that is exactly what we will do
More reactions outside the Liberal party room
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has also emerged from the party room, remaining tight-lipped as she walked past the media. She did not end up putting her hand up for deputy leader after Angus Taylor lost the leadership ballot.
She said:
I’ll be making comments in due course.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Liberals herald ‘new beginning’ for party after Sussan Ley and Ted O’Brien take the leadership
Sussan Ley and Ted O’Brien have left the Liberal party room together after being elected leader and deputy leader of the party.
Ley did not speak to the assembled press pack but will hold a media conference later this afternoon.
Liberal senators Hollie Hughes and Linda Reynolds – who both publicly endorsed Ley prior to Tuesday’s ballot – were clearly thrilled with the outcome as they exited the party room. Reynolds said:
“Australians spoke very clearly and we listened”
The NSW senator Andrew Bragg – a prominent moderate – said he was “very happy” with the result, which WA senator Dean Smith said heralded a “new beginning” for the party.
Jason Wood has also thrown the media a line, saying:
Great for the Liberal party, first female leader.
Linda Reynolds had a little bit more to say when she was asked if she was happy with the results:
Delighted with the result. Australia spoke very clearly to the Liberal party. We’ve listened and we’ve acted. And we’re united.
Notably, Reynolds was flanked by other female Liberal MPs, who were all smiles.
Ley all smiles after successful leadership victory
Sussan Ley has emerged from the party room flanked by her new deputy. She was all smiles as she slipped past the media scrum, telling journalists she would hold a press conference later today.
We will of course, bring you that when it is on.
Going back to Government House for a hot second, where the new Labor ministry is being sworn in: the new home affairs minister, Tony Burke, has again brought his massive family bible.
It’s old and it’s big and it was bought in 1880 by his great-grandfather, who then migrated to Australia. Last time around, he said (on X):
There’s been some interest in the really large old Bible I was sworn in on today as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts. Dad’s grandfather came to Tumut from Ireland after the famine and bought it on 28 March 1880.
Here’s a picture from earlier today:
Ted O’Brien wins Liberal deputy leadership
And Queensland MP Ted O’Brien has won the deputy-leader position in the Liberals, getting 38 votes against fellow Queenslander Phil Thompson, who won 16.
We are just waiting to hear about the deputy vote, which is happening now.
Sussan Ley defeats Angus Taylor for leadership 29 votes to 25
Krishani Dhanji
Sussan Ley has become Australia’s first female opposition leader and the first woman to lead the Liberal party, beating Angus Taylor in the race for the Liberal leadership.
She won against Taylor 29 votes to 25.
Sussan Ley wins vote for Liberal leadership
Sussan Ley has won the leadership of the Liberal party, defeating Angus Taylor. She will be the first female leader in the position.
More to come.
Liberals voting on new leadership
The Liberal party is voting right now for the leadership – we will bring you the news on the new leader as soon as we have it.
Krishani Dhanji
Liberal doorstop shows MPs still making up their minds on next party leader
Liberal MPs and senators have arrived at parliament this morning to vote for their new leader, but not before journalists tried to bounce them at the doors to get them to reveal who they’d vote for.
Backbencher Alex Hawke said many Liberals would still be deciding who to vote for and said he would have a “few more conversations” with colleagues this morning before the vote:
We’ve got two very good choices … I think Angus Taylor of course is a great leader, I think he’s been a great treasurer, he’s got a really good chance, and I also think Sussan Ley has got some really good claims as well as our deputy leader.
I’m going to think about it, I’ve got a few more conversations to have with colleagues, I think you’ll find most people are still mulling over the choice … I think what we’ve lacked in the last few years is a real competitive process.
Dan Tehan, who dealt himself out of the leadership race, wouldn’t say which way he thought the ballot would go, telling journalists to “enjoy our day”.
Conservative MP Garth Hamilton meanwhile said his vote would be going to Angus Taylor, who’s running with Jacinta Price.
Through the lens: more swearing in
The new ministers have started to arrive with their families for the ceremony. Here we have the aged care minister, Sam Rae:
And we’ve got Mark Butler, the health minister, holding his son:
And here is the deputy PM, Richard Marles, coming through the doors of Government House. You can’t quite see in this pic but his son, 29-year-old Sam Marles – a pro MMA fighter – is coming up the rear.
Through the lens: the swearing in
And we’ve got some pics of the swearing-in ceremony this morning.
Here is the PM arriving at Government House:
And here he is being sworn in, with his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, and son, Nathan, watching on:
And we’ve got Penny Wong rocking up in Labor red with her daughter to be sworn in:
