Federal politics: Despondent Liberals prepare for imminent leadership challenge

Months of Liberal leadership tensions are boiling over, with frustrated MPs bracing for a challenge to Sussan Ley this week following another round of “disastrous” polling which has sparked fears of an electoral wipeout for the party.

Within hours of the Coalition reforming for a second time, a fresh Newspoll recorded its support plunging to 18 percent, with One Nation’s popularity skyrocketing to 27 percent, raising expectations Angus Taylor will soon launch a spill.

Some Liberal figures believe the Shadow Defence Minister could topple their party’s first female leader as early as Tuesday, but senate estimates hearings are complicating the calling of a party room meeting during this week’s parliamentary sitting.

“I cannot speak for every one of my colleagues, and I’d be lying to you if I said that conversations weren’t occurring, but look at this point in time, I’m not aware of moves for a spill to be pulled on this week,” Liberal Senator Jonno Duniam told reporters on Monday.

Earlier Senator Duniam had urged Mr Taylor and other opposition frontbenchers in Ms Ley’s team to “do what we haven’t been doing over the last few weeks, get out and do our job, understand the problems this country is facing, come up with solutions and tell people how they’ll be better off under our agenda”.

The Tasmanian frontbencher was among several Liberal MPs who met with Mr Taylor and fellow leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie last month in Melbourne to discuss which of the conservative candidates could eventually oust Ms Ley.

“I’m hoping he can get this done as soon as possible - we need a laxative to loosen the bowels,” says another senior Liberal MP who has been at the centre of leadership discussions in the party’s right faction.

Ms Ley did a media blitz following the Newspoll results, pledging to focus on Australians now that the Coalition parties are reunited.

“I understand that people mark us down when they see disunity and they have seen for 17 days, a lot of going forwards and backwards on different matters between the Liberals and Nationals and they haven’t liked that,” she said.

However, even Ms Ley’s closest supporters are resigned to the fact her leadership is in trouble, with one ally telling The Nightly that ongoing speculation was “a festering wound that has to be dealt with”.

Alex Hawke, another key ally of the Opposition Leader, insisted that everyone in the Liberal party room backed Sussan Ley and that Mr Taylor wasn’t agitating for a spill.

“Obviously, she does, and everybody’s saying that in the whole party room,” Mr Hawke declared when asked if Ms Ley had the support of her colleagues.

“I think if someone wants to run for the leadership of the Liberal Party, they’ll contact their colleagues, they’ll say that, and if they’re in the executive, they’ll step down and do it.

“No one’s done those things, so therefore this is feverish.”

A conservative opponent likened Mr Hawke’s comments to “Baghdad Bob”, the infamous Iraqi Minister for Information during the 2003 US-led invasion.

“Of course, when people are sending us a clear message, we have to listen to that message and assimilate it. Polls tell us what the current public mood is, and every politician is attuned to them. That’s the current public mood, and we’ll have to take it,” he said.

On Monday, Liberal senator Jane Hume delivered an excoriating message to Ms Ley, using a regular spot on Sky News to describe the dire Newspoll numbers for the opposition as “disastrous”.

“Unless something changes, we will be wiped out… I don’t think that at this point there will be a single member of the House of Representatives from Victoria. There won’t be a single member of the House of Representatives from New South Wales. Something has to give,” she said of the party’s 18 per cent primary vote in Newspoll.

“My message to my leaders is that if you have a rabbit in your hat, it’s time to reach for that bunny, because we cannot continue this way.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers seized on the opportunity to mock the opposition turmoil, taking aim at his shadow minister Ted O’Brien and Mr Taylor.

“That three-ringed circus has already got a clown and now it has a bunny as well, and they are the two reasons why nobody takes them seriously on the economy anymore,” he said.

While Senator Hume warned about the dire implications in Victoria and NSW from the polling levels, political watchers believe only Forrest might be at risk for the Liberals in WA.

One Nation starts from a smaller base of support in the State, the Nationals are not a force to be reckoned with federally despite trying, and the fact the Liberals have already had their seats slashed to four out of 16 by Labor.

Ben Small holds Forrest by just 2.2 per cent, although his margin may be artificially low because he faced a strong challenge from a “teal” independent.

Liberal frontbencher James McGrath, a veteran political campaigner, described the latest polling as devastating, but said it was not surprising given the leadership turmoil within the coalition.

“I’m not going to sprinkle gold dust on a cow pat. The polling is dire. It is horrible. It is terrible. But speaking as a former campaign director, I’m not surprised it’s this bad because we’ve spent three weeks having a very public discussion, talking about ourselves, rather than focusing on the many failings of the Labor Government.”

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, a regular government attack dog in Parliament, also seized on the Liberal leadership turmoil during Question Time on Monday by declaring that Labor fully supported Mr Taylor’s leadership ambitions.

“The Member for Hume himself said at the election campaign ‘you know the best indicator of future performance is past performance’.

“Well that’s 100 per cent right, which is why we on this side of the House wish the Member for Hume all the warmest best wishes for this week – we’ve fully got his back.”