Ley set to promote MPs from right to placate Price supporters

Sussan Ley is expected to placate frustrated conservatives with plum gigs in a reshuffle forced by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s sacking, as the Coalition’s right faction splinters over the opposition leader’s future.

Ley formally apologised to Indian-Australians on Thursday, a week after the controversial senator falsely claimed the government was bringing in Indian migrants because they voted Labor.

Influential right-wing frontbenchers James Paterson and Andrew Hastie threw their support behind Ley on Thursday, though some MPs said they expected Price to return to the shadow ministry, demonstrating the depth of support the charismatic former defence industry spokeswoman has in the party’s base.

Paterson is a key member of an emerging and informal faction on the right which is more pragmatic and wants to give Ley time and space to succeed, bolstering Ley’s job security.

But a disaffected wing of the right, including key supporters of former leadership contender Angus Taylor, has been meeting during sitting weeks and workshopping methods to destabilise Ley, whose main support base consists of moderates and the centre-right.

There is no leadership challenge in the offing and Ley currently has the numbers in the party room. But the rebel group has toyed with options including launching a no-confidence motion and an “empty chair” challenge, according to one MP familiar with the talks but unable to divulge them publicly.

Another MP said the talk of challenges was nothing more than a “thought bubble”. But the loose talk of rebellion three months after Ley defeated Taylor in a leadership ballot exposes the depths of dissatisfaction on the fringes of Ley’s party room.

A trigger point might emerge in coming months when the party debates the hot-button net zero climate target, but Ley’s allies are growing more confident of retaining net zero with compromises, as reported by this masthead on Wednesday. Taylor, who lost to Ley by a thin margin of 29-25 after the May election, was contacted for comment.

One conservative MP said of the anti-Ley group: “These people hold extreme views that don’t reflect the modern Liberal Party – they should be punished if they go down this path.”

The hostile MPs’ key complaint is that Ley and her leadership group allowed the saga to drag on and turn into a pile-on in which Price was cast as a bigot without colleagues coming to her defence. Two MPs contrasted the situation with former leader Peter Dutton demanding his troops refrain from criticising Julian Leeser when he quit the frontbench during the Voice to parliament referendum.

Senator Sarah Henderson, dumped in a shadow cabinet reshuffle after the election, reflected the views of the disaffected MPs on Thursday afternoon when she released a statement declining to endorse Price’s dismissal. Price was a “great Australian”, Henderson said, and “the Liberal Party needs to be better at supporting our own, including of course female MPs”. The disaffected group also includes Tony Pasin, Rick Wilson, Alex Antic and about half a dozen others.

Pasin and Antic told The Australian on Thursday that Ley should not have removed Price from the frontbench.

Ley will soon announce a replacement for Price. According to senior party sources, two MPs in the box seat for promotion are Phil Thompson, currently an assistant shadow minister, and Claire Chandler, who was promoted under Dutton but dropped by Ley. If Thompson moved into the ministry, Chandler could take his spot in the more junior frontbench ranks. Both are well-respected, younger members of the right.

Speaking at a press conference in Rokeby, Tasmania, on Thursday, Ley said: “May I take this opportunity, as leader of the Liberal Party, to apologise to all Indian Australians and indeed others who were hurt and distressed by the comments that were made.”

The Price saga came to a head on Wednesday when she refused to bow to Ley’s demands to apologise to Indian-Australians and declined to state her support for Ley.

Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien said on Thursday that Ley was correct to sack Price, as the Indian community in Australia “did not ask to be the centre of political dialogue over the last week”.

Coalition finance spokesperson James Paterson said Price’s position on the opposition frontbench was untenable.

“You are required to support the leader of the parliamentary party, if you are a member of the frontbench, and if you can no longer do that, then you are obliged to leave the frontbench,” he told Sky News on Thursday morning.

However, Paterson said he felt confident Price would return, citing her “sincere and genuine” advocacy.

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