{"id":429906,"date":"2026-01-22T12:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429906\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:18:09","slug":"sussan-leys-leadership-all-but-over-after-coalition-split-senior-liberals-say-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/429906\/","title":{"rendered":"Sussan Ley\u2019s leadership all but over after Coalition split, senior Liberals say | Coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sussan Ley\u2019s leadership of the Liberal party is all but over, senior colleagues believe, after a spectacular split over hate speech laws blew up the Coalition<\/a> for the second time in eight months.<\/p>\n

Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie are the leading contenders to replace her, according to multiple sources who anticipate a challenge could begin to materialise as early as Friday, after the day of mourning for the Bondi massacre.<\/p>\n

Tim Wilson and Ted O\u2019Brien have been mentioned internally, but are considered to be outsiders.<\/p>\n

A special meeting to consider a leadership spill can be held if two MPs petition the party whip.<\/p>\n

Two sources expect a petition for a spill could be signed over the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n

Senior Coalition sources also believe David Littleproud\u2019s leadership of the Nationals could also end, in an extraordinary postscript to a split over the Albanese government\u2019s hate speech laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Littleproud on Thursday morning said the Coalition<\/a> was \u201cuntenable\u201d after Ley sacked three Nationals senators for crossing the floor over the laws, prompting all of the country party\u2019s frontbenchers \u2013 including the leader \u2013 to quit the shadow ministry in solidarity.<\/p>\n

He had earlier warned Ley about the prospect of a mass walkout<\/a> of the shadow cabinet if she accepted the resignations of senators Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald, which she did on the grounds that shadow cabinet solidarity was non-negotiable.<\/p>\n

\u2018You can\u2019t come back from this\u2019<\/p>\n

Senior Liberals across factions believed the latest breakup meant Ley\u2019s position was terminal, coming after poor polling and a previous Coalition split<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t come back from this \u2013 it\u2019s done and dusted,\u201d one Liberal said.<\/p>\n

Another Liberal MP described Ley\u2019s position as \u201cuntenable\u201d after the second Coalition split under her watch. \u201cIt is not salvageable in any way, shape or form,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

One Liberal MP said Ley\u2019s position was \u201cextremely difficult going forward\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe will have to fight now,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

One MP said while the timing of a challenge was still not set, Ley\u2019s leadership had become \u201ctoxic and terminal\u201d for the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be an acknowledgment that this hasn\u2019t just been the fault of Sussan Ley<\/a>. It has been a conga line of failures by the architects of her leadership, including Alex Hawke and Anne Ruston, and there needs to be consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

They called for the party to unite under a new leader, with a \u201cmerit only approach\u201d applied to frontbench positions.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia spoke to more than a dozen MPs about Ley\u2019s future, and nearly all of them believed her time as leader was up \u2013 although the timing of any challenge and the likely successor were unclear.<\/p>\n

Hastie and Taylor belong to the same right faction, meaning only one could realistically contest a ballot.<\/p>\n

Sources said the pair needed to sort it out among themselves, allowing MPs to rally around one candidate who could then reunite the Coalition.<\/p>\n

Taylor was on Thursday reportedly planning to return from overseas, after missing this week\u2019s special parliamentary sitting to pass hate speech and gun laws.<\/p>\n

Wilson would hope to have support from moderate MPs if Ley stepped aside.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, who is factionally unaligned, has a less clear path to the top job. One Liberal suggested he could be a \u201ccompromise\u201d candidate, similar to Scott Morrison after the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull in 2018.<\/p>\n

But frontbencher Melissa McIntosh urged the Coalition to stay together, saying the country needed strong leadership from the opposition \u201cmore than ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country needs the hope that we bring in the cities, the suburbs and the regions,\u201d she said on social media.<\/p>\n

The party room was scheduled to meet when parliament returns on 3 February.<\/p>\n

Some Liberals warned of the risk of allowing the Nationals to dictate the Liberal party<\/a> leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we decide to change our leader now, we\u2019re caving into the demands of the Nationals again, I\u2019m not up for that,\u201d one Liberal MP said.<\/p>\n

Another said that Ley could remain leader \u201cif cooler heads prevail\u201d over the coming weeks, but warned \u201conce the fuse is lit, it\u2019s hard to extinguish\u201d.<\/p>\n

One moderate Liberal MP said an immediate challenge would be reckless.<\/p>\n

Nationals leader David Littleproud and deputy leader Kevin Hogan at a press conference in Brisbane. Photograph: Darren England\/AAP<\/p>\n

But others said a leadership change must be done quickly to avoid inflicting further damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem for any conservative candidate is they can\u2019t say convincingly they will be able to bring the Coalition back together, and they will struggle for credibility if they roll Sussan.\u201d<\/p>\n

One frontbencher said MPs were speaking about the party\u2019s state of play, but sought to temper expectations about an imminent challenge.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Thursday, Littleproud said he had tried to engage in \u201cgood faith\u201d, but blamed Ley for accepting the resignations.<\/p>\n

Ley released a statement shortly after Littleproud\u2019s press conference, calling for focus to remain on the day of mourning for the victims of the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday the focus must be on Jewish Australians, indeed all Australians, as we mourn the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a national day of mourning and my responsibility as leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal party is to Australians in mourning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia understands Ley asked Littleproud to delay media appearances until after the day of mourning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sussan Ley\u2019s leadership of the Liberal party is all but over, senior colleagues believe, after a spectacular split…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-429906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}