New Opposition Leader Sussan Ley may only last a day in the job, the Liberal Party’s federal vice president has joked.
Fiona Scott made the quip when she was asked on Today this morning about how long Ley – the Liberals’ first female leader – would last.
“I don’t know. I mean, a day’s a long time in politics,” Scott, who was an MP from 2013 until 2016, said.
Host Karl Stefanovic said: “That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.”
Scott commented, “Well, it might be just a day. Though it won’t be, but you never know how political situations might change.”
When Scott was quizzed about whether she had confidence in Ley’s leadership, she said Ley was fantastic.
Ley, recognized as a moderate, who served as deputy under Peter Dutton for the past three years, succeeded in narrowly defeating shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, securing 29 votes to his 25 in the party meeting held yesterday.
She has made history as not only the first woman to lead the Liberal Party in its 81-year existence but also as the first woman to be a federal opposition leader for either major party in Australian history.
Ted O’Brien, one of the most strident supporters of the Coalition’s nuclear plan in his former role as shadow energy spokesperson, was elected her deputy.
Ley inherits a Liberal Party reeling from a catastrophic election loss that will likely see the Coalition reduced to just 44 seats, and grappling with what direction to take on economic policy, how to re-engage women voters, and whether to retain its nuclear power advocacy.
