Inside the brutal fallout of Sussan Ley dumping FOUR women from her cabinet – and fresh humiliation for the Greens after election disaster: PETER VAN ONSELEN

Ley sharpens her knife in shadow cabinet reshuffle

So far as frontbench reshuffles go, Sussan Ley‘s decision – as the first female leader of the federal Liberal Party – to dump four women from the shadow cabinet was an interesting one.

Interesting being a euphemism for insanely stupid.

The Coalition really doesn’t have all that many political advantages at the moment.

The Coalition itself almost broke up, only held together because Liberals gave in to policy demands from the junior partner.

The leader only narrowly won the right to be in charge of a rabble of leftovers, with the alternative Angus Taylor certain to hang around in the hope of getting another chance.

There are almost no Liberals left representing city electorates, and these are the seats that usually decide elections.

And, of course, the party lost a swathe of talent when the electoral tide went out, with senior shadow ministers falling by the wayside, including the former leader Peter Dutton, who lost his seat of Dickson.

Sussan Ley’s decision – as the first female leader of the Liberals – to dump four women from the shadow cabinet was an interesting one. Interesting being a euphemism for insanely stupid

So given all of the above, you’d think Ley might want to try to ensure stability at the same time as taking advantage of one of her few political assets: She’s a woman and can help to overcome the Liberal Party’s failures in recent years to promote enough women into parliament and onto the frontbench.

Instead, Ley – who has previously advocated for gender quotas, by the way – dumped two of the most senior women in Dutton’s shadow cabinet all the way to the lowly ranks of the backbench.

Finance spokesperson Jane Hume and education spokesperson Sarah Henderson apparently weren’t good enough to even secure junior portfolio roles in the much-diminished new Coalition joint party room.

Added to their dumping, 35-year-old Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler was also dropped from the shadow cabinet. The most hilarious thing about her removal is that it came at the same time 63-year-old Ley argued that generational renewal was front of mind for her when deciding on who to fill portfolios.

All evidence is to the contrary.

The fourth dumped member of this quartet is Jacinta Price, perhaps the highest-profile parliamentarian on the conservative side. Despite her success fronting the anti-Voice campaign, Price wasn’t seen as fit for shadow cabinet anymore.

Bizarrely, she was given the junior defence portfolio working under Taylor. That’s right, working directly for the man she backed as leader and ran on a ticket with in hopes of becoming the Liberal’s deputy leader.

Perhaps Ley is just having fun uniting the pair under the defence portfolio banner. If so, I like her dark sense of humour. But how smart is it really? Does anyone seriously think their time plotting will be about how to achieve better defence procurement?

Out: Finance spokesperson Jane Hume (left) and education spokesperson Sarah Henderson (right) apparently weren’t good enough to even secure junior portfolio roles

Out: Thirty-five-year-old Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler (left) was also dropped from the shadow cabinet, and Jacinta Price (right) completed the dumped quartet

So why did Ley do what she did with the reshuffle? The answer is simple: factional politicking. With the possible exception of Hume, the women Ley demoted are conservatives who voted for Taylor. Ley is a moderate, to the extent anyone in Liberal ranks is progressive anymore.

What was dished out was good, old-fashioned revenge and attempted realignment of the Liberal Party as factionally more sympathetic to moderate causes. Dutton, of course, was well known as the unofficial leader of the factional right in the Liberals.

There is a new sheriff in town!

As someone holding more progressive views than conservative ones, I don’t mind seeing the moderates regain some clout within the opposition. But not if it backfires, which Ley’s somewhat clumsy approach risks doing. And early accounts suggest that even some of her own supporters are now questioning her decision-making.

Don’t forget it only takes three MPs and senators to change their votes and Taylor has the numbers to challenge and win.

The problem with the thesis that Ley is punishing conservatives and promoting moderates is that she has also failed to promote the best of the progressive party.

Dave Sharma is a NSW Senator who was the Australian ambassador to Israel before entering politics. He’s socially progressive and therefore largely seen as a moderate, but his credentials and views in the national security and foreign affairs space are more hawk-like than dove.

How Ley could overlook him for the shadow ministry is baffling. The fact she gave him a junior shadow assistant ministerial role, and not even in the fields his expertise suits, is even more baffling.

There are some good decisions in the reshuffle. Tim Wilson moving into shadow cabinet with economic portfolio responsibilities is one. Julian Leeser returning as shadow Attorney-General after a period in exile because of his support for the Voice referendum is another.

But I wonder if they won promotion for the right reasons (their abilities) or the wrong (because they are moderates).

Perhaps the best decision Ley made, having moved Hume out of finance, was to give the portfolio to Senator James Paterson. He’ll work extremely hard to give Liberals credibility for fiscal conservatism that has been lacking for far too long in recent years.

Greens run out of gas

The Greens have vowed to use their new balance of power in the senate to insist Labor does more to address climate change.

Their words, not mine.

So how do they think that is going now that the government has approved extending the North West Shelf gas project?

Not very well, according to the Greens official website, which is emblazoned with the headline: ‘Environment minister fails first test. Approves climate-wrecking North West Shelf extension to 2070.’

The Greens vowed to use their new balance of power in the senate to insist Labor does more to address climate change. Under the leadership of Larissa Waters (pictured), they’ve had their first failure now the government has approved extending the North West Shelf gas project

New Greens leader Larissa Waters was no less critical, saying: ‘This North West Shelf extension has been Labor’s single most important coal and gas decision to date. It will release more pollution each year than all of Australia’s coal stations combined and run for 45 more years.’

So much for net zero targets! Although those who query the capacity of renewables to meet energy needs in the years ahead do point out that gas is much cleaner than many other forms of energy and, like it or not, needs to be part of the energy mix for some time to come.

Domestically, the importance of gas is probably heightened by not pursuing nuclear power, but that’s a whole other debate.

The most interesting aspect of this development so soon after Labor was re-elected is that it probably never would have happened if Albo frenemy Tanya Plibersek hadn’t been dumped from the environment portfolio in the PM’s post-election reshuffle. I understand that Plibersek was of a mind to not grant the approval, if only to cause Albo grief.

The Greens usually like to talk a big game, so let’s see if their pledge to use the senate balance of power to hold Labor accountable on climate change has even the slightest ring of truth to it.

If it does, there will surely be payback for the North West Shelf decision.

Storm brewing for ‘anti-business’ Labor

If you doubt that doing business in Australia is getting harder, think again.

The latest data revealed this week that private investment is going backwards. In fact, the results were the worst since the pandemic, which really is saying something.

While some of the blame can be levelled at Donald Trump‘s tariffs, so all of it can’t be blamed on Treasurer Jim Chalmers and his decision-making, there is no escaping that, based on these figures, the forward estimates for economic growth will need to be revised downwards.

And the bad economic news lends weight to lofty criticisms that the Labor government is more than a little ‘anti-business’.

Now, all of this means little if the lucky country can find a way through these tough economic times. For example, if we are propped up by our resources filling gaps that otherwise might expose us to recession.

But if times get tougher and unemployment starts to rise, especially in the context of high immigration and house prices continuing to be unattainable for most younger voters, Labor just might have the beginnings of a political problem on its hands.

Looking at the other side of politics won’t fill too many with confidence that the Coalition can take advantage of that political opportunity, much less do any better if handed the responsibility of fixing things.

But once government get past their first term in power, protest votes can solidify against them – even if the other mob aren’t particularly good.

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