The Liberal Party of the Australian center-right elected Sussan Ley as his new leader, the first woman to lead the party since its creation in 1944, taking the task of bringing the opposition to the government after a devastating electoral loss 10 days ago.
Ley is also the first woman to direct the opposition of Australia in the history of the country. The first woman Prime Minister of the country, Julia Gillard, became head of the Labor Party in 2010 when she was in office.
Former controller of cooking and air traffic by former cisorers, Ley was Minister of Health and Minister of the Environment in the coalition government which held the power of 2013 until his defeat by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2022. In the past three years, she was a deputy chief of the party.
Ley is considered more moderate than her opponent Angus Taylor, whom she defeated in a management bulletin by 29 votes at 25, potentially prefiguring a party decision to the central field after his defeat.
“We must have a liberal party that respects modern Australia, which reflects modern Australia and which represents modern Australia,” Ley told Canberra’s first press conference after taking the role. “I want to do things differently and we must have a new approach.”
Ley largely avoided leading policies in or outside of its elevation in the party leadership. Although she said that she was supporting the reduction of carbon emissions, she did not undertake to maintain a zero net emission policy by 2050.
The new liberal leader is also the first to represent a siege outside a large city in more than four decades, his electorate of Farrer is located in the country of South Wales, highlighting the growing erosion of support for the national liberal coalition in the urban centers of Australia. It will have to win back the voters of the city over the next three years.
Ley will face a difficult battle to return to the government in the next elections, due to 2028, after the coalition suffered its worst defeat since its creation during the vote on May 3.
At the last count, the Labor government directs 94 out of 150 seats in the lower chamber of the Parliament, according to the Australian electoral commission, the coalition having only 43. Compared, before the elections of 2022, it held 77 seats.
Liberal senators and house representatives voted in the leadership ballot.
The news occurred after Albanian swore in his new cabinet on Tuesday morning, with key ministers largely unchanged, in particular the treasurer Jim Chalmers and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong. However, the faction power games overshadowed the new team, the Attorney General and the Minister of Industry for the Albanian first mandate were abandoned from their portfolios.
Albanese will go to Indonesia on Wednesday to meet President Prabowo Subaianto, a first symbolic journey since his re -election to underline the importance of the vast archipelago in north of Australia.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
