Thanks for reading our live coverage of today’s Liberal leadership spill.
If you’re just catching up on today’s headlines, here’s what you need to know:
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce was on ABC TV earlier. The former Nationals leader was asked what he thought of Angus Taylor’s immigration rhetoric today.
The TV presenter asked: do you think it sounded similar to One Nation’s approach?
This was Joyce’s reply:
What numbers? What was the lower number? A better standard? What are those standards?
I mean, if you say you want to do a better job on immigration, I think that’s a unity ticket. We’ve said clearly how you’d go about the process and a stock take of what Australia is able to absorb.
Taylor suggested at today’s press conference that he would release new immigration policies in the coming weeks.
One of Angus Taylor’s first jobs now that he is opposition leader will be to appoint a new-look shadow cabinet.
As his deputy, Jane Hume will get her first pick of a portfolio, but given she is a senator, she is unlikely to choose to become shadow treasurer, given that role generally belongs to an MP from the House of Representatives.
Current shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien received a shoutout during Taylor and Hume’s press conference earlier today, particularly from Hume, who paid tribute to O’Brien’s “dedication … loyalty and his incredibly hard work”.
However, O’Brien has no guarantee that he will remain shadow treasurer, particularly because he served as Sussan Ley’s deputy.
As Paul Sakkal has reported, Victorian MP Tim Wilson is being talked about as a potential shadow treasurer.
Environment Minister Murray Watt has criticised Angus Taylor’s record and said there was no evidence the new opposition leader could offer solutions to challenges facing Australians.
“Angus Taylor and his supporters try to blame Peter Dutton for the decisions the Liberal Party made in the last election, but the video is there for everyone to see: the words coming out of Angus Taylor’s own mouth as shadow treasurer, promising higher taxes, higher debt and higher deficits,” said Watt, who often fronts the media on behalf of the government to attack the opposition.
“He can’t run away from his record, and Australians remember that they would have been in far worse shape economically if Angus Taylor had become the treasurer of this country.”
Watt said the people of Farrer – Sussan Ley’s seat – would now have their say in a byelection on “the ragtag Coalition that we see emerging in Canberra, between the Liberal Party, the National Party, and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party”.
“One interesting question will be to see whether we see a National Party candidate here, so that the cracks in the Coalition, which have barely been repapered over, may well be about to emerge again,” he said.
Liberal Party MPs are gambling that Angus Taylor and Jane Hume will form a political dream team, but it’s still possible the opposition could drop further in the polls.
Taylor acknowledged as much in a mostly well-handled first media conference as leader, declaring the Liberals faced a “change or die” moment, “and I choose change”.
In Taylor and Hume, the opposition has chosen two Liberals from central casting, and the pair did not disappoint on their debut.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has offered his congratulations to Sussan Ley for her years of service and the way she has handled herself as her leadership of the opposition crumbled.
“Congratulations to Sussan Ley for the grace and the dignity she has shown on a very difficult day,” Anthony Albanese wrote on X.
“She can take pride in the years of dedicated service she has given to her community, our Parliament and our nation. I have spoken with Sussan to wish her the best for her future.”
Albanese’s government already seems more comfortable taking on Angus Taylor, rolling out attack ads in the minutes after he was elected and relentlessly sledging him during question time.
Speaking of how the votes flowed in Farrer, another interesting moment during Pauline Hanson’s press conference came when she was asked about optional preferential voting.
“I think it’s in the interest of the people of Queensland [and elsewhere],” she said.
The Queensland Liberal National Party promised to scrap compulsory preferential voting before coming to power.
“The public are screaming out. They don’t want their vote to flow to someone they don’t want in parliament,” Hanson said.
Pauline Hanson says she is confident of the party’s prospects in Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer, which the One Nation leader and reporters in Brisbane accidentally referred to as Fowler.
The division of Fowler is in western Sydney and held by independent Dai Le.
Farrer, a regional seat, includes Albury and swaths of southern and south-western NSW.
During the opening of her press conference, Hanson said the biggest issues in southern NSW were:
Staying with Pauline Hanson’s press conference, and the One Nation leader said she would be carefully checking the records of any Coalition MPs looking to follow Barnaby Joyce and defect to her party.
“People may want to come across to One Nation. If they do approach me, they won’t automatically get a foot in the door,” she said.
“I’m going to look at their past record. I want to know what they fought for … are they going to fight for the communities? Do they have the Australian values, or are they just career politicians, but just want to make sure that they don’t lose their seats?”
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has wished Sussan Ley well in her retirement, but suggested the former opposition leader was letting down her constituents by quitting parliament after 25 years of service.
“I wish her all the best for the future and where her life takes her and spends more time with family,” Hanson said.
“On the other hand, I’m a bit disappointed she didn’t stay with the party, work for her constituency who only voted her in nine months ago. And of course, a byelection will be an extra cost to the taxpayer.”