With tensions mounting inside the Liberal Party over its energy and identity crisis, senior MPs have rallied — at least publicly — behind Opposition Leader Sussan Ley. Fractured Liberals on the brink: Can Sussan Ley hold the Line? even as speculation grows that her leadership may not survive the summer.
Opposition energy spokesman Dan Tehan, who has been tasked with rebuilding the party’s fractured climate and energy policy, told the ABC he was confident Ley would remain leader for at least the next six months. “Absolutely,” he said.
“We suffered our most catastrophic defeat since the Second World War, but we’re now engaged in rebuilding through a proper policy process.”
Tehan, who described his task as “threading a needle,” acknowledged the scale of the challenge — especially after the National Party’s walkout from net-zero commitments. “The public isn’t interested in who announces first or second,” he said. “They want us to act in the national interest.”
Factional tensions and fading patience
But not everyone is convinced. In a warning from the party’s moderate wing, Tim Wilson, the MP for Goldstein, said the Liberals urgently need “clear leadership” to steady the ship before the debate over net zero becomes unmanageable. “We need a compelling vision,” Wilson said. “That comes down to leadership — and that’s what I’m looking for over the next few days.”
His remarks echoed growing frustration among urban moderates, many of whom fear the party’s drift to the right is alienating key metropolitan electorates that demand credible climate action. “The question isn’t whether Ley can survive,” one insider told Crikey, “it’s whether the party can survive another round of denial.”
No Challenge — Yet
Meanwhile, defence spokesman Angus Taylor has dismissed rumours of a leadership challenge, saying he is focused on “developing policies that hold the government to account.” Taylor, who narrowly lost to Ley in the May leadership ballot, remains a pivotal figure in shaping the Coalition’s position on emissions. “We won’t back destructive or unachievable targets,” he said, calling Labor’s net-zero strategy “an economic disaster driving up costs for every Australian.”
Taylor’s insistence that he is not “planning a challenge” has done little to silence speculation. Several Liberal figures privately concede that if Ley fails to unite the party before Christmas — or if polls worsen — Taylor or Tehan could emerge as replacements.
A Party Without a Centre
As John Menadue recently argued, the Liberals’ deeper problem isn’t just leadership — it’s identity. “This is a party in existential confusion,” he wrote, noting that moderates and hardliners have become “mutually incompatible tribes” battling for control of the post-Dutton era. With Labor’s centrism and One Nation’s populism squeezing both ends, the Coalition risks ideological self-destruction — what Menadue described as “virtual self-immolation.”
For Ley, the coming six months will decide whether she can restore coherence to a divided movement or become its latest casualty. As the energy policy review looms, her leadership is not just a test of personality but of purpose — whether the Liberal Party can define what it stands for in twenty-first-century Australia.
