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Ley declares her hand, Price defection backfires
Sussan Ley has officially declared her hand for the leadership of the Liberal Party as the move by rival Angus Taylor to poach Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the Nationals pushes the Coalition close to civil war.
The leadership, to be decided at a party room meeting on Tuesday, officially became a two-horse race on Friday when former trade minister Dan Tehan withdrew.
Ley pledged to try and win back female voters who have deserted the Coalition over the past two elections.
“We did let the women of Australia down … we have to understand why they didn’t support us,” she said.
She also took a pop at Taylor, who has attracted widespread criticism for the paucity of economic policy over the past three years.
“The Liberal Party needs to listen to the Australian people and meet them where they are. We need to understand their aspirations. We need to build a new economic narrative,” she said.
“We need new policy offerings that show Australians we can help them and their families get ahead.”
Tehan has kept open the option of running for the deputy leadership.
“I will work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party,” he said.
Tehan has been touted in some circles as Ley’s running mate, as Price is being touted as a running mate for Taylor in a bid to swing the populist conservative vote behind the former shadow treasurer.
But her recruitment appears to have backfired, with the Nationals livid at what they say was treachery by their Coalition partner in poaching Price – a move that will reduce the Nationals to fewer than five senators. This will cost the Nationals its status as a party in the Senate and the extra staff and resources that come with that.
“Loyalty matters a lot and only five days ago Jacinta was elected in the Northern Territory to sit in the Nationals party room,” Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said.
“That is not the behaviour of a trusted partner”.
As a member of the Northern Territory’s Country Liberal Party, Price can choose whether to sit with the Liberals or the Nationals when in Canberra. But since 1980, the CLP Senate position has been aligned with the Nationals.
“I think the Liberal Party and the CLP have to make decisions around the impact of Jacinta’s decision to resign from the National Party,” McKenzie said.
Liberal moderates, who are swinging behind Ley, said the recruitment of Price, ostensibly for a leadership position, was political suicide, given that one reason Peter Dutton was hammered at Saturday’s election was a perception among voters he was too much like Donald Trump.
Price is a darling of the conservative movement that associates with Trump.
She created controversy during the campaign when she used the slogan “Make Australia Great Again”.
That her defection was in part brokered by Tony Abbott has further alarmed moderates. One said Taylor had, in one fell swoop, shown “he can’t unite the Coalition”.
He had also sent a sign to Liberal women that none of them were good enough for the deputy role, they said.
“We think this will go badly for him,” said one moderate MP.
In defending her decision, Price was coy about whether she would run for deputy.
“I’m being very considerate with the decisions I’m making, and [I’ve] spoken to a raft of people in the lead up to that decision that I’ve made,” she said.
She confirmed that she had spoken to Abbott. “He does support that move [to the Liberal Party]. He’s explained to me that he supports that move.”
Coalition crisis worsens as Canavan mounts challenge
Sussan Ley says the Liberal Party has let Australian women down and must change. Jacinta Price’s defection has pushed the Coalition close to civil war.www.afr.com
It's a better policy than any that Dutton just took to the election
Burning hydrogen forms water vapour which is also another greenhouse gas,
