Australia’s conservative opposition picks a new leader amid ratings slump

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Australia’s opposition Liberal Party on Friday elected former Energy Minister Angus Taylor as its new leader, replacing Sussan Ley, as the conservatives seek to rebuild less than a year after a heavy election defeat by the centre-left Labor Party.

Taylor, a leading figure in the party’s conservative wing and the son of a fourth-generation sheep farmer, defeated Ley in a ballot of Liberal members of parliament by 34 votes to 17.

Taylor now faces the challenge of reviving support for Liberals, which has continued to erode since the May election. Recent opinion polls indicate the opposition coalition has lost a significant number of its voters to far-right populist Senator Pauline Hanson and her anti-immigration party, One Nation.

Two separate polls in January showed One Nation’s primary vote had overtaken that of the coalition.

Speaking to reporters, Taylor acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead, saying the Liberals’ position was the worst ever and acknowledging the party might not exist if an election were held now.

“The choice is simple for the Liberal Party: change or die, and I choose change,” Taylor said.

He said his core focus would be restoring living standards for Australians, tightening immigration rules and opposing the Labor government’s tax and spending policies that he said were increasing inflation and keeping interest rates high.

Migrants who do not believe in democracy, Australia’s rule of law and basic freedoms, should be prevented from migrating, he said. “The truth is that some people do not want to change in order to fit with our core values.” 

Following her defeat, Ley said she would resign from parliament, triggering a byelection in her rural New South Wales seat of Farrer, which she has held since 2001.

A former outback pilot who once mustered livestock, Ley made history in May by becoming the first woman to lead the Liberals after the party’s election rout but her tenure lasted only 276 days, the second-shortest in the party’s history.

Opinion polls in recent months showed Ley’s popularity falling amid infighting, both within the Liberal Party and with its National Party coalition partner, over issues including action on climate change, hate speech laws and immigration.

(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Chris Reese, Deepa Babington and Lincoln Feast)