Sussan Ley takes command of the Liberals — but can she keep the right at bay?

Sussan Ley has made history by becoming the first woman to lead the federal Liberal Party, after defeating right-wing candidate Angus Taylor 29-25 in a partyroom ballot this morning.

Queenslander Ted O’Brien — the Coalition’s nuclear energy advocate under Peter Dutton — is deputy leader after Jacinta Nampijinpa Price withdrew from the deputy race in the wake of Taylor’s defeat. O’Brien will be able to select his own portfolio, with the expectation he will become shadow treasurer.

Ley has thus seen off an attempted right-wing putsch designed to push the Liberals further in the direction of Sky News and Trump-style politics, and is expected to begin the rebuilding process for the party from a centrist position designed to win the women, young people and traditional Liberals who have deserted the party in droves over the past two elections.

A former public servant from Albury who migrated to Australia as a child, Ley entered politics in 2001 when she seized the seat of Farrer off the Nationals, and was a high-profile deputy leader, as well as shadow industry minister and minister for women, under Dutton. In that role, she was frequently tasked with dealing with the media when Dutton adopted his strategy of hiding to avoid embarrassing issues. However, after Dutton rejected her request to replace Simon Birmingham as shadow foreign affairs minister when Birmingham left politics, she was frozen out of the leadership team and had relatively little profile during the disastrous election campaign that led to a record Liberal defeat.

Among the issues used by the right to attack Ley ahead of the leadership ballot was her oft-expressed support for Palestinians, although she held firmly to the party line of support for Israel since October 2023.

The relative narrowness of the victory increases the potential that right-wingers in the party will see Ley’s win as only a temporary setback in their desire to push the Liberals toward MAGA Republicanism, and begin undermining her. Her relationship with Nationals leader David Littleproud, who is now backing away from the Coalition commitment to net zero by 2050 under pressure from science deniers in his own ranks, may also be fraught. There have been suggestions the Coalition arrangement should be ditched for the time being for the benefit of both parties.

Ley’s first task will be to allocate portfolios, and attempt to strike a balance in placating sore-loser right-wingers and rewarding her own moderate supporters. The portfolio for new Liberal Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will be particularly interesting, given Price’s unwillingness to stick to any party line or even her own portfolio under Dutton. Taylor, whose shadow treasurership is now regarded as a low point in recent frontbench performances, may find his star fading rapidly if Price becomes the alternate standard-bearer for the right.

Dutton benefited from all Liberals — including moderates who regarded him as bordering on unelectable — uniting behind him when he became leader after the 2022 disaster. If the right fails to extend the same courtesy to Ley, the coming parliamentary term could be a very long and very bloody one for the Liberals.