By Zac de Silva, Jacob Shteyman and Tess Ikonomou in Canberra
Shaken Liberal MPs are considering rolling their leader within days after another dire opinion poll showed the party’s popularity plummeting to historic lows.
The latest Newspoll, published in The Australian, shows just 18 per cent of voters intend to put the coalition first on their ballot paper, while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation sits on 27 per cent.
More than 60 per cent of people surveyed were dissatisfied with Ms Ley’s performance, making her the most unpopular major party leader in at least two decades.
Conservative frontbencher Angus Taylor, currently the opposition’s defence spokesman, is considered the most likely candidate to replace Ms Ley.
One Liberal MP said Mr Taylor was keeping his cards close to his chest but expected a challenge soon.
“If Newspoll isn’t a trigger (for a challenge), I don’t know what is,” the MP told AAP.
Senators will spend most of this week in estimates hearings, complicating efforts to get all Liberals into the regular Tuesday party room meeting for a vote.
That means a spill is more likely to happen later in the week, but a challenge could still be called on Tuesday.
Ms Ley remained defiant on Monday, insisting she would remain as leader.
“I’ve been elected by my party room. I’m up for the job, we’re up for the job, and we know that we have to hold this government to account,” she told Nine’s Today program.
Asked if his leader retained the support of the party room, Alex Hawke, a moderate Liberal who has long supported Ms Ley, said “obviously she does” and dismissed talk of a spill as “feverish speculation”.
Liberal backbencher Jane Hume laid blame for the coalition’s woes at the feet of its leaders, but wouldn’t say whether the party would do better under Mr Taylor.
“I’m really tired of gallows humour, because that’s all we’ve got left right now,” she told reporters in Canberra.
“The party room wants to support a strong leader, and we have wanted to support a strong leader from day one. This cannot be blamed on anyone else – it has to come back to the leadership that we are facing today.
“I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what the solution is, and I don’t know who the solution is, but what I do know is that more of the same simply isn’t good enough.”
Fellow Liberal senator James McGrath said he was “angry” at how far voter support had slipped.
“I’m not going to sprinkle gold dust on a cow pat,” he told ABC Radio.
“The polling is dire. It is horrible. It is terrible.”
Recent opinion polling by Redbridge and DemosAU has shown similar results to Newspoll, with voters putting One Nation ahead or on par with the coalition.
Mr Taylor failed to put rumours of a spill to bed on Friday, telling Sydney radio 2GB he did have leadership ambitions.
Pressed on whether Ms Ley would still be leader in a week, he said a coup was not in the works but conceded he had been having conversations with his colleagues about the party’s future.
Leave a Reply