Distraught Liberals are now openly contemplating dumping their leader, Sussan Ley, after yet another opinion poll showed them falling behind One Nation and risking an even worse loss at the next federal election than last year’s historic drubbing.
Yesterday, Ms Ley secured a reunion with the Nationals after days of tense negotiations with David Littleproud, who said he could not be in a Coalition while Ms Ley remained in the job, but then relented when the Liberal leader capitulated to his terms.
Liberals vented their dismay this morning as they returned to Parliament House for another sitting week, fresh off a Newspoll published in The Australian showing a combined Coalition primary vote of 18 per cent, with One Nation on 27.
“It’s not simply bad news, it’s an existential crisis, and unless the Coalition can get its act together … [and] understand who it stands for, what it stands for and why it’s here, we don’t deserve to be,” a visibly angry Jane Hume told reporters.
Senator Hume — who is close to leadership aspirant Angus Taylor and backed him when he ran against Ms Ley last year — said she was not “agitating” for a spill but said Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud should “reflect on themselves”.
Jane Hume said the party risked “non-existence” if it did not change course. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
“The party room wants to support a strong leader, and we have wanted to support a strong leader from day one. This cannot be blamed on anyone else. It has to come back to the leadership we are facing today,” she said.
Sources say Mr Taylor, who was shadow treasurer under Peter Dutton, has been preparing for a challenge as early as this week, but he remains on the shadow frontbench for now. Ms Ley told News Breakfast the pair had spoken on the weekend and would again today.
“I have talked to Angus about the challenges facing Australians, as I have every one of my team … I have always been focused on Australians,” she said.
Ley, Taylor, Hastie all at risk of losing seats, warns Hume
Senator Hume said the Newspoll result would leave Liberals without a single representative in Victoria or New South Wales if replicated at an election, which she predicted a “wily” Anthony Albanese would call within 18 months.
“I don’t know who’s left. At this point, we’re talking about a leadership contest between Sussan Ley and Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor. None of them will have seats after the next election if this continues, so something’s got to give,” she said.
Jess Collins, another ally of Mr Taylor, said the poll was “diabolical”, telling reporters, “we have to go with something new and whatever that may be, something has to change”.
Coalition’s hollow reunification ignores ongoing issues
Moderate Liberal James McGrath said he was “angry” that party members had been focused on themselves and that it would “take some time” to repair the relationship with voters, declining to comment on the leadership but saying the Coalition should unite.
“I’m not going to sprinkle gold dust on a cow pat, the polling is dire, it is horrible, it’s terrible,” he told Radio National. “Everyone just needs to calm down, have a cup of tea or a coffee and work out that what unites us is more important than what divides us.”
Senator Maria Kovacic, another moderate, told Sky News she continued to back Ms Ley and that the party’s issues “go more broadly than the leadership itself”. She said a spill revealing a divided party room would “do more harm than good”.
“We absolutely need to stop talking with ourselves and get on with the job of being an effective opposition, and that is something we have not done consistently since the last election,” she said, bemoaning that the dire poll coincided with an interest rate hike.
Jonathon Duniam, who attended a discussion about the leadership with Mr Taylor, Andrew Hastie and other conservatives last month, said the poll was “a team result that we need to own and rectify” and directed pointed comments at Mr Taylor.
“This is not just at the feet of one person or a couple of people… Can I say, Angus, as part of Sussan’s leadership team, as one of our shadow ministers, he needs to, along with me and others, do what we haven’t been doing over the last few weeks. Get out and do our job,” he told AM.
Senator Hume pointedly said leadership was “a decision that’s for respective party rooms”, alluding to the frustration among many Liberals about the conduct of Mr Littleproud.
Nationals deputy Kevin Hogan told Radio National the split had been “very unfortunate” but that his party had acted on “principle” and dismissed the relevance of nationwide polling.
“As Nationals, we only stand in about 20 to 30 seats … Where we have incumbent seats, like my seat, or my Nationals colleagues’, our primary vote obviously would be in the 40s or 30s, in some cases the 50s, because we’re the incumbent, we’re known there,” he said.
In a lengthy Sky News interview, Mr Littleproud insisted his party had done the right thing in walking out of the Coalition after a disagreement on the government’s hate laws, and repeated his criticisms of the decision-making process led by Ms Ley.
“We’ve lived by our principles as a National Party through difficult times, but we’ve done it with dignity and respect … I think the Australian people would expect their representatives to go down to Canberra and stand for something,” he said.
“I think that’s what some of the polls are saying, is we want to know what you stand for.”