Source : the age
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and frontbencher Angus Taylor have pledged to fight hard to rebuild the Liberal Party after the firebrand senator confirmed she would run as Taylor’s deputy in a leadership contest against frontbencher Sussan Ley.
Ley, the acting opposition leader in Peter Dutton’s absence, and Taylor, the shadow treasurer, are locked in a tight battle that may be decided by a handful of votes at a meeting of the shrunken Liberal party room on Tuesday in Canberra.
Jacinta Price (centre) with former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard at the Liberal Party campaign launch on April 13. Abbott supported her switch to the Liberal Party.Credit: James Brickwood
Price revealed last week she would shift from aligning herself with the Nationals to the Liberals, a controversial move supported by backers of Taylor, including former prime minister Tony Abbott.
This masthead reported on Friday that party officials in the Northern Territory were weighing up dropping Price from their Senate ticket as retaliation. She was elected as a Country Liberal Party senator, giving her the right to sit with either of the two Coalition parties. But a years-long convention has dictated the CLP’s senator from the NT should sit with the Nationals.
On Thursday, this masthead reported she would run as Taylor’s deputy, a decision Price confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
In a video posted on Instagram, Taylor and Price were shown talking in a podcast-style format.
“As you know Angus, I’ve been a fighter all my life, and I think we’re in a really good position to come back from this and come back strong,” Price said. “You’ve got incredible experience behind you and I’ve had the pleasure of having you as a mentor.”
“We have such passion for this country, for our party and for the Coalition as a whole. We’re a team that’s prepared to go out and fight.”
Taylor responded: “Absolutely right, you’ve been a great inspiration to me. We’ve got to regroup, rebuild and get back into the fight.”
Price might be pitted against frontbencher Ted O’Brien, who is also considering a tilt for the deputy leadership. O’Brien was the architect of the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy as its energy spokesman, and could take on the role of shadow treasurer if Ley was to win.
Taylor is being backed by the right faction while Ley is largely being supported by party moderates. Both contenders have about 20 guaranteed votes from a party room of about 55 members.
Ley’s supporters believe Taylor’s decision to poach Price has gone down badly with undecided MPs worried about Price’s lack of experience and her views on US President Donald Trump.
The contest between Ley and Taylor became acrimonious last week as both sides released files of compromising information about the other candidate, and as this masthead reported, Ley had been offering portfolios to secure votes.
Asked about the reports on Sky News on Sunday, NSW Liberal senator Dave Sharma said it would be “appalling” if candidates were horse-trading but added that he did not believe this was occurring.
“It’s very important that whatever the outcome is, everyone respects the result, and everyone gets behind the new leader to make sure that they have the best prospects of success as possible,” Sharma said.
“I know that’s not going to be easy, but we don’t have the luxury of being able to tear ourselves apart over the next year or two.”
Price’s party switch was also being used by opponents of Nationals leader David Littleproud to weaken him ahead of his separate leadership contest with conservative senator Matt Canavan on Monday.
Nationals MPs argued privately that Littleproud was weakened by Price’s defection because he failed to avert it despite Price telling colleagues as far back as 2022 she was eager to join the Liberals.
The Greens will also hold a ballot to determine its new leader in coming weeks after its former leader Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne. The main contenders are senators Mehreen Faruqi, Larissa Waters and Sarah Hanson-Young.
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