Wong clarifies Australia's stance on Trump bombing Iranian nuclear sites
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek have confirmed to Sunrise that the Albanese government does support President Trump's strikes on Iran's three nuclear sites.
The issue of support had become controversial after the Australian government released a statement on Sunday, following the bombing attacks by US B-2 stealth bombers and submarines, that was silent on the issue.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Penny Wong confirms Australia's support for US strike on Iran.
'We note the US president's statement that now is the time for peace,' the statement read.
'The security situation in the region is highly volatile. We continue to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.'
But early Monday morning Plibersek cleared up the confusion, which had become a point of attack for the Coalition, who had described the Albanese Government's statement as 'ambiguous'.
'Yes we do support the strike ... we certainly don't want to see full-scale war in the Middle East as it is a delicate and difficult time,' Plibersek said.
'We would encourage Iran to come back to the negotiating table. We've been saying that for some time now, along with the rest of the intenational community.
'No one wants to see Iran develop a nuclear weapon, we know they have been enriching uranium towards that goal.
'Now is the time for reinvigorated efforts towards diplomacy, because a full-scale war in the Middle East would be a terrible thing.'
7NEWS understands Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will convene the National Security Committee of Cabinet, and will address the nation later this morning.
The National Security Committee, officially known as the National Security Committee of Cabinet, is the paramount decision-making body for national security and major foreign policy (including usage of the Australian Defence Force) matters in the Australian Government.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says what happens next is crucial.
'We need to avert an escalation to full-scale war,' Wong said to Sunrise.
'I am sure you will be hearing from the prime minister later today.'
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West Australian
12 minutes ago
- West Australian
Albanese pushing case for AUKUS with ‘everyone' in US amid Pentagon review
Anthony Albanese says his government is engaging 'with everyone in the United States' in its bid to keep the AUKUS defence pact on track amid a snap review by the Pentagon. The Prime Minister is planning a visit to see US President Donald Trump, although the dates are yet to be locked in. He's also expected to travel to China in July for annual leader-level talks. Foreign Minister Penny Wong will meet her US counterpart Marco Rubio in Washington this week, on the sidelines of the Quad ministerial meeting that also involves Japan and India. The US has made it clear it expects its allies, including Australia, to significantly boost defence spending, with the Trump administration nominating a target level of 3.5 per cent of GDP. There are fears in some quarters the 30-day AUKUS review, being run by Pentagon official Elbridge Colby, will give the administration leverage to lean even more heavily on Australia to lift spending. Mr Albanese said his government had made representations to the US administration broadly, including between Defence ministers Richard Marles and Pete Hegseth, about the importance of the AUKUS pact. 'At every opportunity, Australia raises our points that we have … AUKUS benefits three countries, Australia, the UK and the US, but it does something more than that as well. It benefits the world, because it makes our region and the world more secure,' he told reporters in Canberra on Monday. Asked whether that included directly engaging with Mr Colby, the Prime Minister said repeatedly: 'We engage with everyone in the United States.' China's ambassador Xiao Qian warned in an opinion piece published in The Australian on Monday that 'dramatically increasing military spending places a heavy fiscal burden on the countries involved' and would undermine efforts to boost economic growth. Mr Albanese said the ambassador clearly spoke for China but his job was to speak for Australia. As well as the defence issues, Australia is also seeking to remove the 10 per cent 'base' tariff Mr Trump has imposed on all imports along with the 50 per cent impost on steel and aluminium. The so-called reciprocal tariffs will come into effect on July 9, after Mr Trump's 90-day pause on their imposition ends. 'We'll continue to put our case forward that it shouldn't be 10, it should be zero. That is what a reciprocal tariff would be,' Mr Albanese said. 'We have a US free trade agreement, of course, and we've put forward very clearly our arguments. We'll continue to do so.'
The Advertiser
12 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Injured Greens candidate charged, slams 'draconian' law
A one-time Greens challenger to Anthony Albanese in the federal elections, who suffered severe facial injuries as police clashed with demonstrators, has been charged with resisting arrest. Hannah Thomas was among five people arrested while protesting Israel's war in Gaza on Friday outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacturing of components for fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The protesters accused SEC Plating, in southwest Sydney, of making parts for F-35 jets used by Israel, a claim the firm denies. Ms Thomas, 35, who was the Greens candidate for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler, was taken to hospital with injuries suffered during her arrest. In a social media post from her hospital bed, Ms Thomas said the critical injury to her right eye could leave her "potentially without vision", pointing the finger at the NSW premier and the police minister. "I'm in this position because people like Chris Minns and Yasmin Catley have demonised protesters and passed draconian anti protest laws which licence police to crack down on peaceful protest in extremely violent, brutal ways," she said."The anti-protest laws aren't just a threat to people protesting for Palestine but for any person who wants a safer world for all of us." NSW Police said the demonstration at SEC Plating was unauthorised and blocked access to the Belmore business. "As police attempted to arrest the protesters who were not complying with the directions, a scuffle ensued between police and protesters," the force said late Sunday. Video of the incident shows police dragging one of the protesters as onlookers repeatedly shouted "get off her" and "let go of her". Police said Ms Thomas was arrested for not complying with a direction and was charged with resisting arrest. She is set to appear at Bankstown Local Court in August. Footage of Ms Thomas circulating online showed her eye swollen shut and with blood on her face before she was taken to hospital. NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson labelled the policing "excessive" and has written to Ms Catley, the NSW police commissioner and the state's police watchdog demanding an investigation. Police said in a statement said the medical advice they had received about the incident did not meet the threshold for a critical incident declaration. "Should further medical advice be received, the decision can be reviewed," the force said. Protest organisers say another protester was grabbed by the neck and choked, while others were knocked to the ground. All five protesters arrested during the scuffle were granted bail, and four will appear in Bankstown Local Court on July 15. A one-time Greens challenger to Anthony Albanese in the federal elections, who suffered severe facial injuries as police clashed with demonstrators, has been charged with resisting arrest. Hannah Thomas was among five people arrested while protesting Israel's war in Gaza on Friday outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacturing of components for fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The protesters accused SEC Plating, in southwest Sydney, of making parts for F-35 jets used by Israel, a claim the firm denies. Ms Thomas, 35, who was the Greens candidate for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler, was taken to hospital with injuries suffered during her arrest. In a social media post from her hospital bed, Ms Thomas said the critical injury to her right eye could leave her "potentially without vision", pointing the finger at the NSW premier and the police minister. "I'm in this position because people like Chris Minns and Yasmin Catley have demonised protesters and passed draconian anti protest laws which licence police to crack down on peaceful protest in extremely violent, brutal ways," she said."The anti-protest laws aren't just a threat to people protesting for Palestine but for any person who wants a safer world for all of us." NSW Police said the demonstration at SEC Plating was unauthorised and blocked access to the Belmore business. "As police attempted to arrest the protesters who were not complying with the directions, a scuffle ensued between police and protesters," the force said late Sunday. Video of the incident shows police dragging one of the protesters as onlookers repeatedly shouted "get off her" and "let go of her". Police said Ms Thomas was arrested for not complying with a direction and was charged with resisting arrest. She is set to appear at Bankstown Local Court in August. Footage of Ms Thomas circulating online showed her eye swollen shut and with blood on her face before she was taken to hospital. NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson labelled the policing "excessive" and has written to Ms Catley, the NSW police commissioner and the state's police watchdog demanding an investigation. Police said in a statement said the medical advice they had received about the incident did not meet the threshold for a critical incident declaration. "Should further medical advice be received, the decision can be reviewed," the force said. Protest organisers say another protester was grabbed by the neck and choked, while others were knocked to the ground. All five protesters arrested during the scuffle were granted bail, and four will appear in Bankstown Local Court on July 15. A one-time Greens challenger to Anthony Albanese in the federal elections, who suffered severe facial injuries as police clashed with demonstrators, has been charged with resisting arrest. Hannah Thomas was among five people arrested while protesting Israel's war in Gaza on Friday outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacturing of components for fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The protesters accused SEC Plating, in southwest Sydney, of making parts for F-35 jets used by Israel, a claim the firm denies. Ms Thomas, 35, who was the Greens candidate for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler, was taken to hospital with injuries suffered during her arrest. In a social media post from her hospital bed, Ms Thomas said the critical injury to her right eye could leave her "potentially without vision", pointing the finger at the NSW premier and the police minister. "I'm in this position because people like Chris Minns and Yasmin Catley have demonised protesters and passed draconian anti protest laws which licence police to crack down on peaceful protest in extremely violent, brutal ways," she said."The anti-protest laws aren't just a threat to people protesting for Palestine but for any person who wants a safer world for all of us." NSW Police said the demonstration at SEC Plating was unauthorised and blocked access to the Belmore business. "As police attempted to arrest the protesters who were not complying with the directions, a scuffle ensued between police and protesters," the force said late Sunday. Video of the incident shows police dragging one of the protesters as onlookers repeatedly shouted "get off her" and "let go of her". Police said Ms Thomas was arrested for not complying with a direction and was charged with resisting arrest. She is set to appear at Bankstown Local Court in August. Footage of Ms Thomas circulating online showed her eye swollen shut and with blood on her face before she was taken to hospital. NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson labelled the policing "excessive" and has written to Ms Catley, the NSW police commissioner and the state's police watchdog demanding an investigation. Police said in a statement said the medical advice they had received about the incident did not meet the threshold for a critical incident declaration. "Should further medical advice be received, the decision can be reviewed," the force said. Protest organisers say another protester was grabbed by the neck and choked, while others were knocked to the ground. All five protesters arrested during the scuffle were granted bail, and four will appear in Bankstown Local Court on July 15. A one-time Greens challenger to Anthony Albanese in the federal elections, who suffered severe facial injuries as police clashed with demonstrators, has been charged with resisting arrest. Hannah Thomas was among five people arrested while protesting Israel's war in Gaza on Friday outside an Australian firm reportedly linked to the manufacturing of components for fighter jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The protesters accused SEC Plating, in southwest Sydney, of making parts for F-35 jets used by Israel, a claim the firm denies. Ms Thomas, 35, who was the Greens candidate for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's seat of Grayndler, was taken to hospital with injuries suffered during her arrest. In a social media post from her hospital bed, Ms Thomas said the critical injury to her right eye could leave her "potentially without vision", pointing the finger at the NSW premier and the police minister. "I'm in this position because people like Chris Minns and Yasmin Catley have demonised protesters and passed draconian anti protest laws which licence police to crack down on peaceful protest in extremely violent, brutal ways," she said."The anti-protest laws aren't just a threat to people protesting for Palestine but for any person who wants a safer world for all of us." NSW Police said the demonstration at SEC Plating was unauthorised and blocked access to the Belmore business. "As police attempted to arrest the protesters who were not complying with the directions, a scuffle ensued between police and protesters," the force said late Sunday. Video of the incident shows police dragging one of the protesters as onlookers repeatedly shouted "get off her" and "let go of her". Police said Ms Thomas was arrested for not complying with a direction and was charged with resisting arrest. She is set to appear at Bankstown Local Court in August. Footage of Ms Thomas circulating online showed her eye swollen shut and with blood on her face before she was taken to hospital. NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson labelled the policing "excessive" and has written to Ms Catley, the NSW police commissioner and the state's police watchdog demanding an investigation. Police said in a statement said the medical advice they had received about the incident did not meet the threshold for a critical incident declaration. "Should further medical advice be received, the decision can be reviewed," the force said. Protest organisers say another protester was grabbed by the neck and choked, while others were knocked to the ground. All five protesters arrested during the scuffle were granted bail, and four will appear in Bankstown Local Court on July 15.
The Advertiser
12 minutes ago
- The Advertiser
Sussan Ley can be a circuit-breaker ... if the Libs allow her to be
Long the overlooked understudy, Sussan Ley remains cautiously Delphic about her plans to rebuild the Liberal Party. But don't let that fool you. For years, she's been watching and learning from the "big beasts" of conservative certainty: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton - men "destined to rule". These chaps are now all gone from politics - each, in the end, having made more opponents than supporters. Categorically, Ley is not "of" this phenotype. Which is why her plans to resuscitate the flatlining party begin with what not to say when communicating internally with MPs and externally with voters. Self-evidently, Ley can be a circuit-breaker ... if they allow her to be. Already, her vanquished rival, Angus Taylor is publicly opposing the suggestion of rule changes to select women for winnable seats. He calls affirmative action "undemocratic" knowing full well how that cruels her pitch. Some people might make the same observation about Liberal factions. Or the enforcement of shadow cabinet solidarity. Some might even say that opposing quotas is a strange mound to die on for "liberals" after ascending the mountainous debt of government-funded-and-operated nuclear power. In any event, it is hard to recall an instance when Dutton was so publicly countermanded. Despite a margin of just four votes over Taylor in last month's leadership ballot, what Ley envisions simply must be bold - closer to a rebuild than a renovation - albeit, while keeping the heritage-listed facade - let's call it "mid-century Menzies"? For all that, Ley knows she must hasten slowly. Reading between the lines, she wants to get back to basics, steer back to the mainstream. This would involve concentrating political contest around the traditional differences with Labor over managerial competence, budget and economic discipline, defence and national security, business deregulation and aspiration. Her "sealed section" might also include an end to the climate wars and the formal adoption of quotas to get women in Parliament - about which she is "agnostic". She describes all this as "meeting Australians where they are", which sounds as harmless as it does overdue. But for a punchy party addicted to the sugar-hit gratifications of culture wars, it is a correction likely to adduce plenty of Trumpian malcontents. On the plus side, Ley has a bona fide crisis to fix. The Coalition she has inherited needs a 75 per cent increase in seats to reach a majority in 2028. And virtually all of those gains must come in the cities, where the anti-woke, anti-renewables and anti-metro vibes from Dutton and the Nationals have basically killed the brand. "We didn't just lose, we got smashed, totally smashed," Ley told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "Over two elections, the Coalition has lost 33 seats in the House of Representatives. We've lost eight seats in the Senate. "Our primary vote has fallen by more than 9 per cent in the House. Our two-party-preferred vote is down more than 6 per cent, and we now hold just two of 43 inner-metro seats and seven of 45 outer-metro seats." Take that! Simply by acknowledging the scale of her party's descent, Ley showed more grit and empiricism than Dutton ever did. The "hardman" drafted unopposed after Morrison surrendered six Liberal jewels to female community candidates in 2022, had preferred to revile rather than resolve the "gender-quake" that had just levelled his party's blue-ribbon heartlands. Morrison had scoffed at the "cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of the inner-cities," but instead of disowning such bone-headed insults, Dutton doubled down, never hiding his contempt for the teals and for their voters. It was a declaration of war, with women generally and with the affluent Australians on whom the Liberal Party was built. Yet nobody in the party room (Ley included) spoke up at the time. MORE MARK KENNY: In her first month as leader, however, Ley has already done more soul-searching and more listening than her predecessors undertook in eight years. In the aftermath of a thrashing, she prefers John Howard's folksy wisdom that the Australian voters got it right. Thus, she says openly that a Liberal majority requires some or all of the teal seats. That Ley's was the first Press Club address by a Liberal leader in three years simply underscored what an odd, divisive unit Dutton had been. That it was the first address to the club by a female opposition leader (from either side) also made it historic. Of course, this was also smart internal politics. It cemented on the record that the 2025 rout belonged as much to the abrasive rhetoric and policies Dutton espoused as to his poor standing. Ley needs her MPs to accept that future success begins with recognising how far the Coalition has drifted from the mainstream voter. Modernisation is not a choice but a necessity. The scale of this task will be rendered visually next month when Ley faces Anthony Albanese across the dispatch boxes in Parliament. With 94 seats, Labor MPs will extend well around the horseshoe while, behind Ley, will sit a rump comprising less than half of Labor's holding and just five Liberal women. Dutton made the basic error of moving further rightward because Albanese had colonised the centre-ground. It is not a mistake Ley plans on repeating. Long the overlooked understudy, Sussan Ley remains cautiously Delphic about her plans to rebuild the Liberal Party. But don't let that fool you. For years, she's been watching and learning from the "big beasts" of conservative certainty: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton - men "destined to rule". These chaps are now all gone from politics - each, in the end, having made more opponents than supporters. Categorically, Ley is not "of" this phenotype. Which is why her plans to resuscitate the flatlining party begin with what not to say when communicating internally with MPs and externally with voters. Self-evidently, Ley can be a circuit-breaker ... if they allow her to be. Already, her vanquished rival, Angus Taylor is publicly opposing the suggestion of rule changes to select women for winnable seats. He calls affirmative action "undemocratic" knowing full well how that cruels her pitch. Some people might make the same observation about Liberal factions. Or the enforcement of shadow cabinet solidarity. Some might even say that opposing quotas is a strange mound to die on for "liberals" after ascending the mountainous debt of government-funded-and-operated nuclear power. In any event, it is hard to recall an instance when Dutton was so publicly countermanded. Despite a margin of just four votes over Taylor in last month's leadership ballot, what Ley envisions simply must be bold - closer to a rebuild than a renovation - albeit, while keeping the heritage-listed facade - let's call it "mid-century Menzies"? For all that, Ley knows she must hasten slowly. Reading between the lines, she wants to get back to basics, steer back to the mainstream. This would involve concentrating political contest around the traditional differences with Labor over managerial competence, budget and economic discipline, defence and national security, business deregulation and aspiration. Her "sealed section" might also include an end to the climate wars and the formal adoption of quotas to get women in Parliament - about which she is "agnostic". She describes all this as "meeting Australians where they are", which sounds as harmless as it does overdue. But for a punchy party addicted to the sugar-hit gratifications of culture wars, it is a correction likely to adduce plenty of Trumpian malcontents. On the plus side, Ley has a bona fide crisis to fix. The Coalition she has inherited needs a 75 per cent increase in seats to reach a majority in 2028. And virtually all of those gains must come in the cities, where the anti-woke, anti-renewables and anti-metro vibes from Dutton and the Nationals have basically killed the brand. "We didn't just lose, we got smashed, totally smashed," Ley told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "Over two elections, the Coalition has lost 33 seats in the House of Representatives. We've lost eight seats in the Senate. "Our primary vote has fallen by more than 9 per cent in the House. Our two-party-preferred vote is down more than 6 per cent, and we now hold just two of 43 inner-metro seats and seven of 45 outer-metro seats." Take that! Simply by acknowledging the scale of her party's descent, Ley showed more grit and empiricism than Dutton ever did. The "hardman" drafted unopposed after Morrison surrendered six Liberal jewels to female community candidates in 2022, had preferred to revile rather than resolve the "gender-quake" that had just levelled his party's blue-ribbon heartlands. Morrison had scoffed at the "cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of the inner-cities," but instead of disowning such bone-headed insults, Dutton doubled down, never hiding his contempt for the teals and for their voters. It was a declaration of war, with women generally and with the affluent Australians on whom the Liberal Party was built. Yet nobody in the party room (Ley included) spoke up at the time. MORE MARK KENNY: In her first month as leader, however, Ley has already done more soul-searching and more listening than her predecessors undertook in eight years. In the aftermath of a thrashing, she prefers John Howard's folksy wisdom that the Australian voters got it right. Thus, she says openly that a Liberal majority requires some or all of the teal seats. That Ley's was the first Press Club address by a Liberal leader in three years simply underscored what an odd, divisive unit Dutton had been. That it was the first address to the club by a female opposition leader (from either side) also made it historic. Of course, this was also smart internal politics. It cemented on the record that the 2025 rout belonged as much to the abrasive rhetoric and policies Dutton espoused as to his poor standing. Ley needs her MPs to accept that future success begins with recognising how far the Coalition has drifted from the mainstream voter. Modernisation is not a choice but a necessity. The scale of this task will be rendered visually next month when Ley faces Anthony Albanese across the dispatch boxes in Parliament. With 94 seats, Labor MPs will extend well around the horseshoe while, behind Ley, will sit a rump comprising less than half of Labor's holding and just five Liberal women. Dutton made the basic error of moving further rightward because Albanese had colonised the centre-ground. It is not a mistake Ley plans on repeating. Long the overlooked understudy, Sussan Ley remains cautiously Delphic about her plans to rebuild the Liberal Party. But don't let that fool you. For years, she's been watching and learning from the "big beasts" of conservative certainty: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton - men "destined to rule". These chaps are now all gone from politics - each, in the end, having made more opponents than supporters. Categorically, Ley is not "of" this phenotype. Which is why her plans to resuscitate the flatlining party begin with what not to say when communicating internally with MPs and externally with voters. Self-evidently, Ley can be a circuit-breaker ... if they allow her to be. Already, her vanquished rival, Angus Taylor is publicly opposing the suggestion of rule changes to select women for winnable seats. He calls affirmative action "undemocratic" knowing full well how that cruels her pitch. Some people might make the same observation about Liberal factions. Or the enforcement of shadow cabinet solidarity. Some might even say that opposing quotas is a strange mound to die on for "liberals" after ascending the mountainous debt of government-funded-and-operated nuclear power. In any event, it is hard to recall an instance when Dutton was so publicly countermanded. Despite a margin of just four votes over Taylor in last month's leadership ballot, what Ley envisions simply must be bold - closer to a rebuild than a renovation - albeit, while keeping the heritage-listed facade - let's call it "mid-century Menzies"? For all that, Ley knows she must hasten slowly. Reading between the lines, she wants to get back to basics, steer back to the mainstream. This would involve concentrating political contest around the traditional differences with Labor over managerial competence, budget and economic discipline, defence and national security, business deregulation and aspiration. Her "sealed section" might also include an end to the climate wars and the formal adoption of quotas to get women in Parliament - about which she is "agnostic". She describes all this as "meeting Australians where they are", which sounds as harmless as it does overdue. But for a punchy party addicted to the sugar-hit gratifications of culture wars, it is a correction likely to adduce plenty of Trumpian malcontents. On the plus side, Ley has a bona fide crisis to fix. The Coalition she has inherited needs a 75 per cent increase in seats to reach a majority in 2028. And virtually all of those gains must come in the cities, where the anti-woke, anti-renewables and anti-metro vibes from Dutton and the Nationals have basically killed the brand. "We didn't just lose, we got smashed, totally smashed," Ley told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "Over two elections, the Coalition has lost 33 seats in the House of Representatives. We've lost eight seats in the Senate. "Our primary vote has fallen by more than 9 per cent in the House. Our two-party-preferred vote is down more than 6 per cent, and we now hold just two of 43 inner-metro seats and seven of 45 outer-metro seats." Take that! Simply by acknowledging the scale of her party's descent, Ley showed more grit and empiricism than Dutton ever did. The "hardman" drafted unopposed after Morrison surrendered six Liberal jewels to female community candidates in 2022, had preferred to revile rather than resolve the "gender-quake" that had just levelled his party's blue-ribbon heartlands. Morrison had scoffed at the "cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of the inner-cities," but instead of disowning such bone-headed insults, Dutton doubled down, never hiding his contempt for the teals and for their voters. It was a declaration of war, with women generally and with the affluent Australians on whom the Liberal Party was built. Yet nobody in the party room (Ley included) spoke up at the time. MORE MARK KENNY: In her first month as leader, however, Ley has already done more soul-searching and more listening than her predecessors undertook in eight years. In the aftermath of a thrashing, she prefers John Howard's folksy wisdom that the Australian voters got it right. Thus, she says openly that a Liberal majority requires some or all of the teal seats. That Ley's was the first Press Club address by a Liberal leader in three years simply underscored what an odd, divisive unit Dutton had been. That it was the first address to the club by a female opposition leader (from either side) also made it historic. Of course, this was also smart internal politics. It cemented on the record that the 2025 rout belonged as much to the abrasive rhetoric and policies Dutton espoused as to his poor standing. Ley needs her MPs to accept that future success begins with recognising how far the Coalition has drifted from the mainstream voter. Modernisation is not a choice but a necessity. The scale of this task will be rendered visually next month when Ley faces Anthony Albanese across the dispatch boxes in Parliament. With 94 seats, Labor MPs will extend well around the horseshoe while, behind Ley, will sit a rump comprising less than half of Labor's holding and just five Liberal women. Dutton made the basic error of moving further rightward because Albanese had colonised the centre-ground. It is not a mistake Ley plans on repeating. Long the overlooked understudy, Sussan Ley remains cautiously Delphic about her plans to rebuild the Liberal Party. But don't let that fool you. For years, she's been watching and learning from the "big beasts" of conservative certainty: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton - men "destined to rule". These chaps are now all gone from politics - each, in the end, having made more opponents than supporters. Categorically, Ley is not "of" this phenotype. Which is why her plans to resuscitate the flatlining party begin with what not to say when communicating internally with MPs and externally with voters. Self-evidently, Ley can be a circuit-breaker ... if they allow her to be. Already, her vanquished rival, Angus Taylor is publicly opposing the suggestion of rule changes to select women for winnable seats. He calls affirmative action "undemocratic" knowing full well how that cruels her pitch. Some people might make the same observation about Liberal factions. Or the enforcement of shadow cabinet solidarity. Some might even say that opposing quotas is a strange mound to die on for "liberals" after ascending the mountainous debt of government-funded-and-operated nuclear power. In any event, it is hard to recall an instance when Dutton was so publicly countermanded. Despite a margin of just four votes over Taylor in last month's leadership ballot, what Ley envisions simply must be bold - closer to a rebuild than a renovation - albeit, while keeping the heritage-listed facade - let's call it "mid-century Menzies"? For all that, Ley knows she must hasten slowly. Reading between the lines, she wants to get back to basics, steer back to the mainstream. This would involve concentrating political contest around the traditional differences with Labor over managerial competence, budget and economic discipline, defence and national security, business deregulation and aspiration. Her "sealed section" might also include an end to the climate wars and the formal adoption of quotas to get women in Parliament - about which she is "agnostic". She describes all this as "meeting Australians where they are", which sounds as harmless as it does overdue. But for a punchy party addicted to the sugar-hit gratifications of culture wars, it is a correction likely to adduce plenty of Trumpian malcontents. On the plus side, Ley has a bona fide crisis to fix. The Coalition she has inherited needs a 75 per cent increase in seats to reach a majority in 2028. And virtually all of those gains must come in the cities, where the anti-woke, anti-renewables and anti-metro vibes from Dutton and the Nationals have basically killed the brand. "We didn't just lose, we got smashed, totally smashed," Ley told the National Press Club on Wednesday. "Over two elections, the Coalition has lost 33 seats in the House of Representatives. We've lost eight seats in the Senate. "Our primary vote has fallen by more than 9 per cent in the House. Our two-party-preferred vote is down more than 6 per cent, and we now hold just two of 43 inner-metro seats and seven of 45 outer-metro seats." Take that! Simply by acknowledging the scale of her party's descent, Ley showed more grit and empiricism than Dutton ever did. The "hardman" drafted unopposed after Morrison surrendered six Liberal jewels to female community candidates in 2022, had preferred to revile rather than resolve the "gender-quake" that had just levelled his party's blue-ribbon heartlands. Morrison had scoffed at the "cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of the inner-cities," but instead of disowning such bone-headed insults, Dutton doubled down, never hiding his contempt for the teals and for their voters. It was a declaration of war, with women generally and with the affluent Australians on whom the Liberal Party was built. Yet nobody in the party room (Ley included) spoke up at the time. MORE MARK KENNY: In her first month as leader, however, Ley has already done more soul-searching and more listening than her predecessors undertook in eight years. In the aftermath of a thrashing, she prefers John Howard's folksy wisdom that the Australian voters got it right. Thus, she says openly that a Liberal majority requires some or all of the teal seats. That Ley's was the first Press Club address by a Liberal leader in three years simply underscored what an odd, divisive unit Dutton had been. That it was the first address to the club by a female opposition leader (from either side) also made it historic. Of course, this was also smart internal politics. It cemented on the record that the 2025 rout belonged as much to the abrasive rhetoric and policies Dutton espoused as to his poor standing. Ley needs her MPs to accept that future success begins with recognising how far the Coalition has drifted from the mainstream voter. Modernisation is not a choice but a necessity. The scale of this task will be rendered visually next month when Ley faces Anthony Albanese across the dispatch boxes in Parliament. With 94 seats, Labor MPs will extend well around the horseshoe while, behind Ley, will sit a rump comprising less than half of Labor's holding and just five Liberal women. Dutton made the basic error of moving further rightward because Albanese had colonised the centre-ground. It is not a mistake Ley plans on repeating.
