When the party machine wouldn't listen, Sussan Ley paid attention, to me
Why, in 2025, do women still contend with the unspoken expectation that it's their job to fix the mess, but not to challenge or change the structures that created the mess in the first place? Why was Julia Gillard's leadership, unfairly in my view, framed in this way too? Even when she called it out, including the entrenched discrimination she faced as a woman in leadership, she couldn't change it – her Labor colleagues dumped her before she had the chance. Granted, Sussan isn't Julia – she is the leader of the opposition, not the prime minister, for a start. And the Liberals are not the Labor Party. Their leadership roles are 15 years apart.
In that time, we've witnessed new AI technology, seen the rise of social media and the introduction of same-sex marriage. Change happens at lightning speed now. It feels like a century of change in just 15 years.
In this context, Sussan Ley can now do what other leaders may not dare to do with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She is now well placed to listen to our community and redefine the party before the shadowy powerbrokers carve up power behind the scenes.
When power in government is what delivers you leadership, there is every reason to work with, not against it. The price is high: it defines you before you can redefine it. But the Liberals are not in power. We've suffered the worst result in our political history, and everything is fracturing. Including, this week, the Coalition.
The party needs to change. Since 2010, our party has lost more primary votes every election. Women have now deserted us in droves. Slowly at first, until the past two elections, where the effect was a tsunami. And why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't we, I should say?
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Women across Australia are crying out for leadership that changes old, tired and outdated ways of thinking and doing for the better. In 2021, the historic March 4 Justice around Parliament House even demanded we do so.
In 2025, and over the course of this next term of parliament, Ley has a unique opportunity to lead as a change agent by listening to the community first, even if that means challenging some of our old ways, policies and even factional power structures.
Some say she's already begun that task, by standing up to unreasonable demands around shadow cabinet solidarity by the Nationals. Ley started long before this week, and I believe her proven ability to listen, reflect and speak uncomfortable truth to established power can, and will, take her all the way to the Lodge.
That is the sort of leadership that an increasingly cynical electorate, tired of the old cookie-cutter approach, is looking for. Sussan has done this before. I believe she will do it again. Her ability to listen first to our community, and to speak up when others won't, may well be the making, not the breaking, of the Liberal Party. Some cynical types may say: that's a job for a woman. I would say it's a job perfect for Sussan Ley.
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