The new liberal leader is also the first to represent an electoral region outside a large city in more than four decades
The Australian liberal party elected Sussan Ley as a new leader, the first woman since the foundation in 1944 of the center-right movement, which intends to return to the government 10 days after an electoral defeat.
Ley is also the first woman to lead Australian opposition in the country’s history. The first woman to hold the position of Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, became the leader of the Labor Party (Center left) in 2010, when she was in power.
Former pilot and worker in the livestock sector, Ley was Minister of Health and Minister of the Environment in the government of the coalition that remained in power of 2013 until being defeated by the current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022. In the last three years, he was vice-leader of the party.
Ley is seen as more moderate than rival Angus Taylor, who defeated today in the vote for leadership, for 29 votes against 25, foreshadowing a potential return of the party to the center of political terrain.
The new liberal leader is also the first to represent an electoral region outside a large city in more than four decades.
Ley represents the region of Fala, inside Nova Wales do Sul, which points to the growing erosion of support for the National Liberal Coalition in Australia’s largest urban centers, where he will have to regain voters over the next three years.
Ley will face a difficult battle to return to the government in the next elections, scheduled for 2028, after the coalition, which now leads, has suffered on May 3 the worst electoral defeat since its inception.
According to the last count, the Labor Party leads in 94 of the 150 seats in the Baixa of Parliament, according to the Australian Electoral Commission, with the coalition to stop only 43. By comparison, before the 2022 elections, the coalition had 77 seats.
