Sussan Ley has bowed out of federal politics with more dignity than was afforded her by parliamentary colleagues as she attempted to redeem the trust they had frittered away in the Liberal heartland.
Those same scheming MPs now face their own moment of truth in her old seat of Farrer, that, despite being a Liberal/Nationals fiefdom since 1949, is no lay down misere with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation breathing down their necks.
Officially resigning from parliament on Friday, Ley made a veiled reference to her replacement, Angus Taylor, adopting her policies while pointedly paying tribute to women who “put themselves last”.
“It will be for commentators and historians to measure the period of my leadership, but I am proud that we were instrumental in establishing a Commonwealth royal commission into antisemitism and that we set clear directions on several key policy areas in tax, industrial relations, energy, national security, and families,” she said. “I welcome the Coalition’s immediate re-adoption of many of these directions and policies in recent days and weeks.”
Ley spent 25 years as an MP but, unlike many colleagues, she was not a political staffer but had a life outside parliament: inspired by Australia’s first female commercial pilot, Deborah Lawrie, in 1980, aged 19, she tried for a pilot’s licence, then went to university at 30 and studied part-time for a decade while raising three children, before cutting her political teeth in Tony Abbott’s blokey cabinet, eventually coming to the aid of her party after the catastrophic leaderships of Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton.
Facing similar electoral devastation, Labor sometimes turned to the “White Lady Funerals option”, electing Julia Gillard, Kristina Keneally, Carmen Lawrence, Joan Kirner, Anna Bligh and Jacinta Allen to resuscitate support.
But in choosing Ley to lead them out of the wilderness, the Liberals attempted to modernise and convince women who had fled to the teals, Labor and the Greens to come home.
The Liberals lost so many moderates that, although Ley defeated the highly conservative Taylor, her close 29-25 vote victory meant she was always looking over her shoulder and never really got clear air to halt the party’s collapsing popularity.
As a result, Ley suffered the fate of many women political and business leaders: double-guessing everything they do in terms of how it will be judged by their colleagues and the wider community.
She copped criticism for failing to outline coherent policies while Liberal headquarters sat on an internal review of what went wrong in last year’s federal election.
And the increasingly assertive National Party’s lurching further to the right to keep One Nation at bay did not help. The Coalition junior partner’s constant undermining was disloyal and demeaning, but Ley did herself no favours politicising the aftermath of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
In the end, she was a hugely competent politician whose ability to cut through was betrayed by unremitting leadership speculation. Yet her arrival as leader saw Liberals rush to endorse women opposition leaders across Australia. That is Ley’s true legacy.
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