Sussan Ley confirms she will run for Liberal leader – as Nat Barr confronts her with an important ‘woman’ question

Sussan Ley has announced she will run for the Liberal Party leadership, and candidly admitted that it had failed women during the election campaign. 

In her first interview since the Coalition’s crushing election defeat, Ley confirmed she will run for the top job when MPs meet in Canberra on Tuesday morning. If she is successful she will be the party’s first ever female leader.

Sunrise host Nat Barr asked the former pilot and taxation officer if she had the numbers to beat tipped frontrunner Angus Taylor – who has linked up with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – and Ley said she was optimistic.

‘We have great talent… and I welcome nominations across that party room,’ the Member for Farrer said.

Barr also confronted Ley, 63, about the party’s poor performance with female voters at the polls.

‘You were the most senior woman there … why didn’t you get more women voting for you in this last election?’

Ley admitted the Coalition got it wrong by not focusing more on policies that would benefit female voters, who outnumber males.

‘We did let the women of Australia down,’ she said.

Ley said it was ‘part of the conversations’ that she had been having since Saturday and that she would ‘continue’ to have.

‘We have to understand why people didn’t support us, that they weren’t inspired by our policy offerings and that they didn’t believe we were the best choice to lead the country forward.

‘It’s about having the conversations that I have described, it’s about making sure that I am listening to my colleagues and to demonstrate to them we want a strong approach that includes everyone.

‘I want to harness all of the talent in my team, take it forward under my leadership and meet the Australian people, because clearly we didn’t do that at the last election.

‘We do need to reflect a modern Liberal Party.’

Barr asked Ley if she was aware of the term ‘the glass cliff’.

‘For everyone at home that term means a woman is given a senior position where the risk of failure is high. It is pretty, probably, common knowledge that your party has a woman problem. 

‘Is that what’s happening here? They’re putting you in to clean up the mess?’

Ley responded, saying: ‘I’m putting my hand up, Nat. I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time, and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia.

‘We can win the next election. And this is a moment to look forward and bring the Australian people with us on this journey.’

Ley is being backed by Alex Hawke who was instrumental in Scott Morrison securing the party’s leadership and served as Immigration Minister under him.

The Coalition’s problem with women voters was illustrated on last week’s Q+A program on the ABC.

Genevieve Neich, a communications staffer for toll-road operator Transurban, lashed the Liberal Party’s policies as off-putting to women. 

‘We know that Peter Dutton visited 17 petrol stations along his campaign trail but at the same time did not release a single policy on women, specifically,’ she said. 

The audience applauded Ms Neich – a resident of the Sydney suburb of Mosman – before she added that politicians needed to address policies that matter to women.

‘I just don’t see Peter Dutton’s campaign touching on any of those at all,’ she said. 

Ms Neich claimed young women had ‘got the ick’ from the Opposition’s campaign and asked panellists – Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Nationals’ Bridget McKenzie and former senior Liberal George Brandis – what elected leaders were doing for women and girls. 

Senator McKenzie replied that it would be a ‘step forward’ when women’s policy did not equal or equate to childcare policy in Australia. 

‘Women need to be heard, they need to be able to see leaders that they can resonate with,’ she told Ms Neich and the audience.

‘Women need to be able to hear what we’ve got to say, that means speaking in a language and a way that resonates with women rather than how it’s typically been done.’ 

Senator McKenzie argued many of the Coalition’s policies benefitted both men and women, noting that women were on the ‘frontline of the cost of living crisis’. 

‘Women also fill up the car, they also go to petrol stations,’ she said. 

‘They’re the ones that are embarrassed usually, having to work two jobs to actually get the school fees or soccer fees paid. 

‘They’re the ones having to put things back out of the shopping trolley in front of everyone because they can’t afford it.’

Ms McKenzie noted the Coalition was doing well in early polls but had lost a lot of female voters by saying it would end work-from-home, as women are disproportionately represented in WFH jobs. 

Mr Dutton announced work from home would be scrapped for federal public servants and if he was elected, 80 per cent of Commonwealth employees would need to attend the office full-time.

Days after announcing the policy and receiving widespread backlash, the Coalition backflipped but the damage to its election campaign had been done.