Well done Angus: Deck chairs shuffled on the Titanic as Ley is ousted

The Socialist Bulletin Staff - 13/2/2026

THE Liberal Party has suffered their second successful leadership spill in as many years, as their first female leader has been removed after just 9 months in the job by Angus Taylor.

As was widely predicted in May, it seems Sussan Ley was only elevated to the leadership to sit in the chair until the party's fortunes were sufficiently bad, to make whichever leader replaced her appear competent when they raised the polls, even if they are not competent.

This strategy appears to have been detrimental to the Liberal cause however, as in recent polls they now sit at half of far-right party One Nation.

It is extremely unlikely that Mr Taylor will be able to convince the general public of the Liberals' ability to govern, as the one reason that most people outside of politics know of him is from a mistake he made on his Facebook account in 2019, forgetting to switch to his alt account before praising his own work as a 'great move' and 'fantastic'. Additionally, Mr Taylor is from Peter Dutton's faction, which was shown to be completely unable to form government just last year.

It is possible that the election of a man from the National Right, unseating a moderate woman, could be positive for the Liberals' chances at winning back One Nation's new supporters, however, and could potentially serve to 'defang' One Nation if Mr Taylor plays his cards well.

The Deputy Leadership has also been spilled today, with Jane Hume replacing Ted O'Brien. This is probably the most intelligent move possible by the Liberals, as Mr O'Brien's policies in 2025 were one of the largest reasons that the Liberals are now in the position they are in.

If the Liberals seek to win a 2019-style victory, in which they managed to scrape by with a one-seat majority, they would need to win back millions and millions of voters, and somehow prevent any baby boomers or older Australians from dying, as younger Australians are far more likely to prefer the Greens or actual left-wing parties, with 'Generation Z', according to recent polling, preferencing the Greens above all other parties. Increasingly, this is seeming to be an impossible task.