Source : the age
By Paul Sakkal
The battle for the Liberal leadership will be fought between MPs from regional and outer metropolitan areas after the party’s once powerful moderate faction was almost wiped out in Saturday night’s historic Coalition defeat and Peter Dutton lost his own seat.
Keith Wolahan, a Melbourne-based MP who was viewed as a future leadership hope for the moderates, said on Sunday he was likely to lose his seat and pleaded with his party to reconnect with the millions of voters in Australia’s major cities. Just four Liberals were set to be elected in urban electorates on Sunday.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton lost the election, and his own seat of Dickson.Credit: James Brickwood
“Our party has an issue in urban Australia, which is where most people live … So we need to turn our mind to that like we have never done before,” Wolahan said on the ABC’s Insiders. “We can provide a vision of hope for the country. Because I think, as a party, we’re very nostalgic. We look back to our heroes, whether it’s Menzies, or Howard, or Costello, and that’s great. But I think we need more than the rearview mirror.”
The moderates’ power in the Coalition could fall further after this weekend because five of their members have lost their seats, while the more conservative National Party lost only one seat, entitling it to increase its share in the shadow cabinet.
The MPs viewed as most likely to contend for Dutton’s job include shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, deputy leader Sussan Ley, defence spokesman Andrew Hastie and immigration spokesman Dan Tehan.
All except Hastie, who holds the outer urban Perth seat of Canning, are from regional areas. None are aligned with the moderates.
While Hastie recorded the biggest swing towards him, Taylor, Ley and Tehan all retained their seats without losing significant ground to Labor.
Tehan, when asked on Saturday night if he would run to lead the party after successfully fighting off a well-funded challenge by independent candidate Alex Dyson, said: “I haven’t had any time to think about the future.”
Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash told Seven on Saturday that Hastie was “leadership material” with an impressive résumé and work ethic.
Peter Dutton in parliament in 2024 with Angus Taylor (centre) and Dan Tehan.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
NSW moderates are deeply hostile towards Taylor, a NSW right-winger whom they blame for the Coalition’s meek economic agenda. The remaining members of that grouping, who once counted figures such as Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey among their number, could back someone like Ley to avoid Taylor taking over. The deputy Liberal leader is more aligned with the soft right grouping.
Wolahan said he believed postal votes and pre-poll results still to be counted meant his seat was too close to call, but he conceded a 2.5 per cent swing to Labor in his eastern suburbs seat in Melbourne meant he was likely to lose. If neighbouring MP Michael Sukkar loses in Deakin, the Liberal Party will be reduced to the outer urban seats of Casey and Latrobe in Melbourne.
Wolahan called for a more thorough election review than after its loss three years ago. “There were chapters and paragraphs in that [2022 review] I think we offended throughout the [2025] campaign,” he said.
It’s unclear when a party room meeting to discuss the party’s leadership will be held, but it could take more than a week until the votes in all seats are counted, which has to happen before it can take place.
Keith Wolahan, who may lose his seat, has implored the Liberal Party to turn its attention back to suburban voters.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In Goldstein, moderate candidate Tim Wilson’s camp is confident of bridging the gap with incumbent teal Zoe Daniel, making him potentially the only new Liberal MP and adding one back to the faction’s numbers.
Of the nine seats where the opposition appears most likely to lose incumbent members, five are members of the moderate grouping that was also smashed when Scott Morrison lost in 2022.
The defeated moderates include faction co-convenor David Coleman, the foreign affairs spokesman whose NSW seat of Banks was not considered at risk before Saturday night’s drubbing.
Outspoken Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer, young frontbencher James Stevens and Hughes MP Jenny Ware all lost seats to Labor.
Andrew Hastie and Sussan Ley are among the leadership contenders. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The moderate grouping will now rest on the shoulders of Liberals mostly in the Senate, including Jane Hume, Andrew Bragg and Anne Ruston, along with potentially just two in the lower house: Zoe McKenzie from Flinders on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula and Julian Leeser from Berowra in NSW.
Showing the difficulty the moderates face, right-wing Liberal senator Alex Antic on Sunday morning encouraged the Liberal Party to become more conservative.
Zali Steggall, who retained the seat of Warringah previously held by Tony Abbott, said on Insiders that the Liberals no longer had a small-l liberal wing and were now dominated by conservatives.
“I think the question will be, are they capable of listening?” she said on Insiders.
“What’s missing is they have abandoned concepts of liberalism, where they are now is a conservative party. Number two on most of their ballot papers was One Nation, followed by [Clive Palmer’s] Trumpets.”
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