Holly Hughes had not been pre-selected for another Senate term, former minister Linda Reynolds was retiring, and Gisele Kapterian was allowed to vote because the party thought she would win a seat in Sydney’s north. But Kapterian never actually became an MP, having lost the seat by 26 votes on a recount.
Ley has overseen record-low polling and has made a series of political attacks that have not landed, including a call for Kevin Rudd to resign as US ambassador, and a demand that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologise for wearing a Joy Division t-shirt.
In her favour is experience and some polls showing personal popularity with voters. Ley entered parliament in 2001 by winning the seat of Farrer in southern NSW, and did so by bringing an audacious fight against the National Party. She knocked off a challenger from the junior Coalition partner despite the seat having been held for 17 years by former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Tim Fischer.
Early polls showed Ley enjoyed one of the highest favourability ratings of any MP. But her poll scores plummeted amid disunity in the Coalition.
Before entering parliament, she had at various times worked as a pilot, cleaner, waitress, and cook in shearing sheds. During the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, Ley held ministerial roles in health, sport, aged care and environment. She was Dutton’s deputy during the last term in opposition.
Angus Taylor
Ley’s challenger in May, Taylor would be the favourite to replace her if a leadership spill were to be called today. Taylor is a leader within the National Right faction that is larger and more conservative than Hawke’s NSW-based Centre Right, and has the support of a number of high-profile figures within the party.
A Rhodes scholar and former partner at multinational consulting firm McKinsey, Taylor came into parliament riding the wave of Tony Abbott’s 2013 landslide election victory. He represents the seat of Hume, which takes in multicultural sections of outer Sydney and the Southern Highlands, which is home to many large country properties and stately homes.
Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Taylor took on the law enforcement and cybersecurity portfolios under Malcolm Turnbull, and was Scott Morrison’s energy and emissions reduction minister leading up to the party’s 2022 election loss.
He was shadow treasurer under Dutton. During his tenure, the Coalition did not match Labor’s tax cuts before the 2025 election, allowing the government to criticise the opposition for offering higher taxes. Taylor has said he supported indexing tax brackets.
In 2019, Taylor was involved in a bizarre clash with American feminist author Naomi Wolf over an alleged incident that took place when he was attending Oxford University in 1991. In Taylor’s first speech to parliament, he claimed that his earliest encounter with “insidious political correctness” came when Wolf and several other students sought to tear down a Christmas tree so as not to offend other students.
The claims lay dormant for six years, until Wolf in 2019 became aware of the speech, denying her involvement in the incident and saying she had not even attended Oxford at that time. Wolf, who is Jewish, went on to argue Taylor’s speech was an “antisemitic dog whistle”. Taylor said Wolf’s counterclaims were “outrageous”.
Andrew Hastie
Hastie is the new challenger and has the support of a group of young right-wingers within the party. He chose not to run in the post-election ballot, repeatedly signalling a watch-and-wait approach to the leadership.
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However, recent comments on abortion and allusions to an infamous anti-immigration speech could threaten the 43-year-old former SAS captain’s palatability with moderate Liberal voters. A later challenge to Ley’s leadership could be advantageous to Hastie, giving him time to prove himself to colleagues who have questioned his nous.
Following the May election, Ley handed Hastie the home affairs portfolio. He had previously held a string of assistant and shadow ministerial roles in the defence area. Colleagues have said the West Australian was frustrated by the home affairs assignment, after stating a desire to step beyond national security roles in an economic or socially focused portfolio.
He resigned less than five months later, moving to the backbench and supercharging suspicions about his intent to challenge Ley’s leadership. While on the backbench he has issued statements on hot-button issues.
The devout Anglican has repeatedly stated that the time is not right, expressing his desire to study, write, and spend time with his three young children. However, his allies have said privately that he would be ready to lead from early next year.
He first entered parliament after being tapped on the shoulder by then-prime minister Tony Abbott to contest a September 2015 by-election in the outer-suburban Perth seat of Canning. Just four days before the poll, Abbott – a consistent cheerleader of Hastie – was rolled by Malcolm Turnbull.
In 2022, while assistant defence minister, Hastie testified in Ben Roberts-Smith’s unsuccessful defamation trial against this masthead, saying he had heard persistent rumours of the veteran kicking an Afghan prisoner off a cliff, and had lost his pride in the man.
Sussan Ley, with Ted O’Brien, taking questions at her first press conference as leader.Credit: James Brickwood
Ted O’Brien
As Ley’s deputy, it might seem like O’Brien would be the natural choice for party leadership, but being second in command doesn’t always mean next in line. However, some MPs have suggested O’Brien could be the dark horse in a potential race, as he builds a network within the party and has largely remained out of the net zero debate.
The former trainee baker turned businessman is a factionally unaligned, but has more support from the party’s moderates than the right-wing.
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O’Brien had two unsuccessful runs at parliament before winning on his third attempt. He lost to Labor’s Arch Bevis in Brisbane in 2007, and more famously was narrowly defeated by mining billionaire Clive Palmer in Fairfax in 2013. Palmer poured millions into the campaign and only beat O’Brien by 53 votes. Palmer resigned after just one term, clearing the way for O’Brien in 2016.
O’Brien served as opposition spokesman for climate change and energy after the Coalition’s 2022 election defeat and served as the Liberals’ main cheerleader for nuclear energy during the last term of parliament. He has been shadow treasurer and deputy Liberal leader since the 2025 election.
In a party that has had fractious relations with the Chinese Australian community, O’Brien stands out for his ability to speak Mandarin fluently. Before entering politics, O’Brien was a consultants and lived in Taiwan and Hong Kong for periods.
