Australia’s Liberal Party names first female leader

Australia’s Liberal Party has for the first time chosen a woman as its leader, with Sussan Ley to take over from Peter Dutton after he led the party to a bruising election loss.

Ley, from the moderate faction of the party, beat Angus Taylor – who ran on a promise to restore conservative values – by four votes.

At the election on 3 May, the Liberal-National coalition, currently Australia’s main opposition party, suffered what many are calling the worst defeat in its history.

Pundits and MPs have blamed the result on polarising leaders, a messy campaign and “Trumpian” policies, which alienated women and young people in particular.

Ley’s appointment comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was sworn in at Government House on Tuesday, following his Labor Party’s landslide election win.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Labor has won at least 93 seats – increasing their majority by 16 – while the Coalition has 41 electorates, down from 58. Some seats are still too close to call.

Ley has held the massive regional New South Wales seat of Farrer since 2001 and has served as a senior minister in a variety of portfolios – making her one of the Liberal Party’s most experienced hands. She was also the party deputy under Dutton.

Ted O’Brien, a Queensland MP who was the energy spokesman in charge of selling the coalition’s controversial nuclear power proposal, was elected Ley’s deputy.

Both are expected to address the media later on Tuesday, but Ley has previously said she wanted to help the party rebuild its relationship with Australians.

“Many Australians, including women and younger Australians, feel neglected by the Liberal Party,” she said when announcing her desire to lead.

“We need to listen and we need to change. The Liberal Party must respect modern Australia, reflect modern Australia and represent modern Australia.”

Speaking after the party room vote, former minister Linda Reynolds said: “Australia spoke very clearly to the Liberal Party and we’ve listened and we’ve acted.”

The junior coalition partner, the Nationals, re-elected leader David Littleproud on Monday, after he too was challenged by a hardline conservative colleague.

Albanese’s new cabinet was also sworn in on Tuesday.

The biggest changes include former Labor deputy Tanya Plibersek swapping from the environment portfolio to social services, and former communications minister Michelle Rowland becoming attorney general.

Former Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Ed Husic – the first Muslim to become an Australian government minister – were both removed from the frontbench.

“I have got people who are, I think, in the best positions and that’s across the board,” Albanese said when announcing the positions on Monday.

Born in Nigeria to English parents, Ley grew up in the United Arab Emirates before moving to Australia at age 13.

“Travelling, and being at boarding school on my own, I think you either sink or swim,” Ley said in a previous interview. “Obviously, I was someone who decided very early on in life that I wasn’t going to sink.”

It was as a young woman that she changed her name from Susan to Sussan, inspired by numerology – an ancient belief that numbers have a mystical impact on people’s lives.

“I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality,” she told The Australian.

“I worked out that if you added an ‘s’ I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It’s that simple.”

“And once I’d added the ‘s’ it was really hard to take it away.”

As an adult she has had a “wonderfully varied” career path, Ley says, obtaining degrees in economics and accounting while raising three young children, earning a commercial pilot licence, and working in the outback mustering livestock.

Elected in 2001 to represent an area the size of New Zealand, Ley was promoted to Health Minister under Malcom Turnbull in 2014, but resigned two years later amid an expenses scandal.

Ley apologised after using a taxpayer-funded trip to purchase an apartment on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

She re-joined the frontbench in 2019 after Scott Morrison’s “miracle” election win, as the Minister for Environment.

In that role, she was taken to court by a group who claimed she had a duty of care towards children to protect them from harm caused by climate change. Eight teenagers and an 87-year-old nun convinced a court that the government had a legal duty towards them when assessing fossil fuel projects, but the landmark decision was later overturned.

Ley has also drawn headlines for her comments about Palestinians. She was a co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, an informal cross-party group which aimed to raise the experiences of Palestinian people and has spoken in the chamber in support of Palestinian autonomy.

However, speaking after the vote on Tuesday, one of her colleagues Andrew Wallace said she has “seen the light on Israel in recent years”.