Who will be the next Opposition Leader? Here are the four names in the running
Four names have emerged as possible contenders to replace Peter Dutton and lead the Coalition, following Saturday night’s election white wash.
Labor’s emphatic win resulted in a significant cull to the opposition’s 55-seat hold in the House of Representatives, with the current count reducing their numbers to 37.
Currently Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor, Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley, immigration spokesman Dan Tehan, and defence spokesman Andrew Hastie have been touted as potential successors, however Coalition members warned that it was “too early to call”.
As it stands, 17 seats remain too close to call.
While Mr Taylor has been touted as the natural successor, one Coalition MP questioned whether promoting the Shadow Treasurer to the top job would only highlight the Coalition’s election shortcomings.
“I think we completely failed on economic policy, so I don’t see how re-running that film is going to help us,” they said.
Another MP raised concerns with promoting Mr Tehan to the top job after he struggled to retain the previously safe Liberal seat of Wannon, following repeated challenges from Climate 200 backed independent Alex Dyson, who is also a former Triple J presenter.
“Any person who struggles in a safe seat shouldn’t be leader,” they said.
“What are you gonna do next campaign? You’re gonna be campaigning in your seat, or are you going to be campaigning across the nation?”
Mr Hastie, a former commando who entered parliament after winning the WA seat of Canning in 2016, could also be barred from the job due to his lack of cabinet experience.
However, he did serve as the assistant minister for defence under the Morrison government from 2020 to 2022.
Questions were also raised why Ms Ley, who is technically the acting Liberal Leader following Mr Dutton’s ousting, didn’t front media following the election bloodbath.
She’s not alone, at the time of publishing, only Mr Tehan was asked about the prospect of ascending to the Liberal leadership.
However, quizzed by the ABC on election night he said he needed “time to consider, time to think and get an understanding of what has occurred”.
Despite this, the general consensus was that it was still “too early” to determine who would succeed Mr Dutton.
“Everyone is in shock today and we’ve still got a lot of counting to do, so I wouldn’t be rushing to a party room,” said a third senior Coalition member.
“There’s enough blame to go around and we’ve all got to be really honest and humble in the message that we’ve been sent.”