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Well, it’s on at last. If anyone’s still interested. The federal Liberal Party will meet this morning for a leadership spill, which will almost certainly end the woeful reign of Sussan Ley. The big questions are, firstly, whether a change of leadership will also end the corrosive reign of the ‘moderates’: the lettuce-leaf ‘blue-green’ wets who’ve dragged the party to the lowest ebb in its history.
Secondly, whether even a new, conservative leader is enough to save the party.
The spill was set in motion yesterday morning when six shadow ministers resigned. The resignees included Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonno Duniam and Shadow Finance Minister James Paterson – prominent backers of Angus Taylor, who has long been touted as a conservative replacement for Sussan Ley. Rising conservative star, former SAS commander Andrew Hastie, recently renounced challenging for the leadership, leaving the field clear for Taylor.
Recently resigned Liberal frontbencher James Paterson has declared Angus Taylor is the “smartest policy brain in the shadow cabinet” and will be supporting him in a spill against opposition leader Sussan Ley.
The former opposition finance spokesman, who this morning resigned from the shadow cabinet to back Mr Taylor’s leadership challenge, said that the party’s performance in recent Newspolls could not go on.
“Almost five million Australians voted for us, they put their trust in us. Over the last nine months, according to the most recent opinion polls, 2.1 million of those people have since deserted the coalition… it’s more than 7000 votes a day. This cannot go on. If it goes on there will be nothing left of the Liberal Party by the next election.”
“I think it is clear what the verdict on her leadership is. She is at -39 personal rating, the worst performance of an opposition leader in 23 years,” he said.
It will prove easier, though, to remove one woman than to scrub the corrosive influence of the entire ‘moderate’ faction. Unless Taylor has the fortitude (and the numbers) to shake loose the wets – roots and branches – a leadership change will amount to little more than rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
Liberal MP Melissa Price has floated her name for the party’s deputy leadership, claiming she would be “a good counterbalance” to conservative challenger Angus Taylor […]
Liberal Senator Jane Hume earlier this morning tossed her hat in the ring to become the next Liberal deputy “regardless of who is leader”.
Hume is another dripping-wet ‘moderate’ who prattles about ‘social justice’. Price is a self-described ‘centrist’, but one thing in her favour is an incident during her time as environment minister under Scott Morrison. Price shirt-fronted Pacific Cargo Cult grifter, Anote Tong, the former president of Kiribati and climate change advocate, telling him, “I know why you’re here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific it’s always about the cash. I have my chequebook here. How much do you want?”
I kinda like her.
While Ley is talking tough about holding her job, even her fellow ‘moderates’ are starting to walk away.
Liberal Senator Dave Sharma has refused to publicly back either Opposition Leader Sussan Ley or conservative challenger Angus Taylor, but said simply changing leaders would not be enough to revitalise support for the coalition after a series of dire Newspolls.
Well, he’d know, wouldn’t he?
