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A shambolic plan by conservative Liberal MPs to replace Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is bogged down in a dispute over who should replace her, as aspirant Angus Taylor urges colleagues to avoid a messy spill next week and instead turn the spotlight on Labor over a looming interest rate rise.
A leadership challenge next week is not off the table as Andrew Hastie’s backers believe they have more support than Taylor and are keen to move quickly.
A covert meeting on Thursday between Hastie, Taylor and right-wing powerbrokers James Paterson and Jonno Duniam – organised by former MP Michael Sukkar and held in the hours before former colleague Katie Allen’s funeral – did not reach a consensus on whether Hastie or Taylor should run against Ley.
More talks are required after what two sources, unwilling to comment publicly but aware of the discussion at a home in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, said was a complex standoff with both men making coherent claims.
A senior ally of Ley said Taylor and Hastie would be shocked to learn that the opposition leader received a readout of the Melbourne meeting hours after it concluded. A separate source who supports Ley said: “So it’s six men meeting before a funeral for a former female colleague to figure out how to knock off the party’s first woman leader.”
At the gathering, the group discussed a range of options, including the pair running as a leader-deputy combination, as this masthead revealed on Saturday. But both men remained firm on wanting the leadership. Hastie’s supporters have been pitching the younger West Australian as a generational break who can take on a surging One Nation, while Taylor’s backers say he would offer stability and Howard-era Liberal values.
“My focus is on how to resuscitate the party, how to resuscitate the Coalition at the right time, and how to resuscitate a nation which is going backwards,” Taylor told this masthead on Thursday afternoon.
Several MPs who had spoken to Taylor said he was warning against a “crazy” spill that did not allow for a clean leadership change, saying such a move would appear self-indulgent. They also said it could prove disastrous if in parliament next week the Liberals were unable to focus on a likely interest rate hike that would damage Labor’s economic credibility.
Another right-wing source involved in the leadership talks described the situation as “shambolic” and damaging for the Right faction. One Nation has eaten away at the Coalition in recent polling, and changes to policy and values were a point of discussion at the meeting on Thursday.
Paterson and Duniam are key members of Ley’s leadership and remain publicly supportive despite their involvement in backroom talks that suggest the writing is on the wall for the current leader, though the deadlock could cause the stasis to drag on for weeks or months.
Hastie’s group have been claiming a much higher level of support within the Right faction than Taylor. Taylor’s camp has pushed back, and unaligned right-wingers say Hastie’s claims of support are untested.
Taylor’s camp is critical of Hastie’s backers and says they do not have a coherent plan on how to translate Hastie’s claim of 20 votes into a majority including centrists and some Moderates to vote for a spill.
Hastie’s allies, meanwhile, believe Taylor is deluding himself into thinking he has enough support inside the Right and would ultimately yield.
The deadlock means a challenge against Ley next week is less likely than if the Right was united, yet Hastie’s camp may still choose to move next week or a rogue MP could trigger a spill if opinion polling showed even more catastrophic polling numbers.
Complicating matters is a leadership spill in the Nationals on Monday. Leader David Littleproud is expected to easily prevail, but the ongoing chaos in the junior Coalition party has delayed peace talks between the parties, which only had a slim chance of yielding a result anyway.
As Ley waits on Littleproud to emerge from the spill, she is expected to give existing frontbenchers temporary responsibilities to fill the portfolio responsibilities vacated by Nationals who quit en masse last week.
The dramatic leadership talks took place against the backdrop of a memorial service for former federal Liberal MP Katie Allen, which drew hundreds of party figures to Melbourne.
Hastie arrived at the secret meeting in a car with Duniam and O’Sullivan, with whom he shares a house while in Canberra. Taylor arrived alone later, and all of the MPs left to go to the funeral at the same time. Paterson is close to both Taylor and Hastie, while Sukkar also knows both well.
Earlier, Paterson told ABC Melbourne: “I wouldn’t be speaking to you this morning, as the shadow minister for finance, if [Ley] didn’t [have my support]. I understand my responsibilities under the Westminster convention.”
At the funeral, Ley entered St Paul’s Cathedral with frontbencher Aaron Violi. She departed with Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson.
Hastie and Taylor arrived just before the service started. Most conservative MPs did not attend a wake after the service, but Taylor, who knows Allen’s widower, spent part of the wake with former MP Alan Tudge while Hastie returned to his accommodation at the Athenaeum Club.
After the memorial, mourners spread onto Flinders Street and Ley’s factional allies stood around her. They included former defence minister Marise Payne, Moderate leader Anne Ruston and deputy Ted O’Brien.
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Paul Sakkal is chief political correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and has won Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect via X or email.From our partners
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