Put up or shut up, key Liberal tells would-be leader
Conservative MP Angus Taylor is expected to challenge for the Liberal leadership within days, but he is yet to reveal his hand.
Source: AAP
Liberal frontbencher and leadership aspirant Angus Taylor needs to make it clear whether heâs going to challenge Sussan Ley for the partyâs top job, a key powerbroker says.
Taylor is widely expected to attempt a leadership change by the end of the week after a string of dire polls showed plummeting voter support for the coalition.
The opposition defence spokesman believes he has the numbers to win a spill, but logistical challenges mean party members are unlikely to vote until Thursday evening or Friday as senators are tied up in parliamentary committee hearings before then.
Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, a leading figure in the partyâs conservative faction, urged Taylor to effectively put up or shut up.
âIf Angus is interested in⌠the leadership then he should say so,â Duniam told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday morning.
âThatâs something he needs to make clear.
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âThen what events take place after that well-trodden path? Thatâs all a matter for him.â
Party conventions require any frontbencher who wants to challenge for the leadership to resign from the shadow ministry.
Taylor is yet to do so, despite admitting heâs been having conversations with his colleagues about the Liberalsâ future direction.
Duniam also warned a change in leadership wouldnât be a silver bullet â a sentiment echoed by pollster Kos Samaras.
âThe antidote to their problems is not the leader,â the Redbridge Group director and former Victorian Labor strategist said.
âIt would be good policy, and thatâs a long road ahead of them and isnât an easy solution.â
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The latest Newspoll for The Australian, conducted during the most recent break-up between the Liberals and Nationals, puts the coalitionâs first-preference vote at just 18 per cent, eclipsed by One Nation on 27 per cent.
Samaras doubted the coalition could develop robust policies before the 2028 election while also competing with the rival conservative party.
âThey are not only declining in support in regional Australia to One Nation â theyâve historically been losing ground to the Labor Party and to independents,â he said.
âOutside of Queensland, they only hold five urban seats among a cluster of voters to the tune of 14.5 million. So theyâve got a lot of problems.â
To arrest the slide in the polls, a number of Liberals have called for a greater focus on policy development.
âWe can talk about leadership âtil the cows come home, but that is not going to be what Australians look at and go, âtheyâve got the message, weâre on track again,'â Duniam said.
Fellow Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, from the moderate faction, said policies on housing and migration needed to be the focus.
âPoliticians are well paid, theyâre sent to Canberra to do policy work and to hold the government to account,â he said.
âWe are in control of our own destiny, and we will be even more so if we are forthright on policy.â
-with AAP
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