Angus Taylor has been elected head of the federal Liberal Party, becoming the new opposition leader after deposing Sussan Ley less than a year into her tenure in the role.
Mr Taylor won a leadership spill on Friday morning 34 votes to 17 after weeks of infighting over the direction of the opposition.
The conservative MP resigned from Ms Ley’s front bench on Wednesday to challenge for the leadership, saying the party lacked direction.
“The Liberal Party’s position under Sussan Ley’s leadership has continued to deteriorate, leaving it weaker than at any time since its formation in 1944. This is a confronting reality, but one we cannot ignore,” he said.
The leadership spill followed polling that showed the coalition’s primary vote had slumped to a record low and being overtaken by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Senator Jane Hume was elected deputy leader by the same margin, defeating now former deputy Ted O’Brien in a multiple round vote that saw WA MP Melissa Price excluded in the first round, and Victorian MP Dan Tehan excluded in the second round.
Angus Taylor: at a glance
- Grew up in southern NSW; studied law and economics at the University of Sydney and won a Rhodes Scholarship to study philosophy at Oxford
- Joined McKinsey in 1994, became a partner in 1999, and later co-founded irrigation and agriculture businesses including Eastern Australia Irrigation
- Elected as Liberal MP for Hume in 2013 during Tony Abbott’s Coalition victory
- Held a range of ministerial roles including assistant minister for cities and digital transformation, law enforcement minister and energy minister
- Faced controversy in 2019 over the $80 million water buyback from a company he co-founded and later apologised to Clover Moore over claims involving council travel documents
- Appointed shadow treasurer after the Coalition’s 2022 defeat, later serving as defence spokesman
- Narrowly lost the Liberal leadership to Sussan Ley in 2025
- Resigned from the shadow ministry in February 2026 and won the February 13 leadership spill 34–17, with Jane Hume elected deputy leader
Mr Taylor’s ballot victory ends the tenure of Ms Ley as the Liberals’ first female leader and first female opposition leader. She becomes the party’s second shortest-serving leader, eclipsing Alexander Downer by only 24 days.
The MP for the mostly rural seat of Farrer spent just nine months in the role after taking over leadership of the party after the coalition’s landslide defeat at the 2025 election.
She will be the second-shortest serving leader in the party’s history, and has announced she will soon resign from her seat, triggering a by-election in the southern NSW seat of Farrer. Ms Ley expressed gratitude after she lost the leadership ballot 34-17, but left with a parting barb against Mr Taylor’s backers who had white-anted her leadership over the preceding months.
“It is important that the new leader gets clear air, something that is not always afforded to leaders, but which, in the present moment, is more important than ever,” she told reporters in Canberra.
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