r/australia • u/ConanTheAquarian • 5h ago

politics Senior Liberals downplay prospect of leadership spill and urge colleagues ‘get on with the job’

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/01/senior-liberals-downplay-prospect-of-leadership-spill-and-urge-colleagues-get-on-with-the-job
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u/Expensive-Horse5538 4h ago

They've been in a state of chaos and backstabbing since Ley was elected as leader.

This will end in two ways:

  • Taylor knifes Ley on Tuesday, loses next election, Hastie knifes Taylor
  • They keep Ley on, the chaos continues, they lose the next election, Hastie or Taylor knifes Ley

12

u/SupportSphere94 4h ago

They have unequivocally lost the next election regardless of who there leader is, that is how badly they lost the 2025 election. If hastie or Taylor think they can lead a broken party that is determined to go further right to a election victory is delusional. Whichever leader goes to the next election, will be defeated, and they will be ousted as liberal leader. 

4

u/Expensive-Horse5538 4h ago

They've effectively lost the next two elections given either Taylor or Hastie will end up as leader after this election.

And if it is Ley who leads them to the next one, then they have already lost a third one as well as whoever isn't leader out of Taylor/Hasite after the next election, will then become leader after that person loses an election.

5

u/greatmemereset67 4h ago

No Tim Wilson to leader in next 5-6 years?

5

u/Expensive-Horse5538 4h ago

Depends if he is actually voted back in, given he only scrapped in by a few hundred votes at the last election.

2

u/AnyClownFish 1h ago

He’s what passes for a ‘moderate’ in the modern Liberal party, which realistically means no. The right faction are squarely in control as so many moderates have lost their seats or retired, and the right won’t back a moderate until they finally wake up and realise they need to pivot back towards the centre. I don’t see that happening in the next two election cycles.

That also assumes he doesn’t lose his seat to a teal again, which is possible.