Former Home Secretary Karen Andrews says Peter Dutton will be the next Liberal Party leader, confirming speculation that he will run unopposed.
Key points:
- Karen Andrews says former Environment Minister Sussan Ley will be the Liberals’ vice president
- He says Mr Dutton and Mr Ley will work to “reform” the party
- Mrs Andrews was one of the people nominated to be a Member of Parliament
Ms Andrews said Dutton had broad support for the party and that it was a “very fair and very accurate assessment” that he would become the next leader.
“He will stand up, unopposed, to take the lead and that means no one else will raise their hand,” he said.
“It simply came to our notice then.
“His deputy is almost certain to be Sussan Ley. Together, they will bring a team to appoint people to the shadow ministry and to reshape the party for the future.”
Ms. Ley, who is not aligned with conservative or moderate factions, is seeking support from her colleagues, but some see her as tainted by the Morrison era.
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Ms Andrews said that since Mr Dutton was from Queensland, it was important that the MP be from another state (Mrs Ley is from New South Wales), which had put an end to any ambition that he had to raise his hand to be an adjunct leader.
“While it is personally disappointing to me, the reality is that it was unsustainable to have a Queensland leader and deputy leader,” he said.
“I understand that we need to rebuild the whole country. Queensland received a blow, some of the other states had a significant blow and we need to get back to our values and look at it closely.”
Karen Andrews says Peter Dutton will be elected as the leader of the opposition. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Before the election it was believed that Josh Frydenberg or Dutton would replace Scott Morrison in case the Coalition lost, however, to Mr. Frydenberg losing his seat in favor of an independent, left Mr. Dutton as favorite.
Ms Andrews said the new leadership team, as well as the rest of the party, needed to understand the outcome of the election and why the Coalition lost the women’s votes.
“I don’t think the answer is whether we go right or left,” he said.
“The reality is that the people we lost en masse were predominantly women, educated women.
“They were women who had financial security. They were unhappy with the Liberal Party and chose to take their vote elsewhere.”
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