The new leadership team: Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee and new deputy leader Leanne Castley stand united. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Not many saw it coming, including dumped Liberal deputy leader Jeremy Hanson.
But Leader Elizabeth Lee was always going to have to deal with the right-wing lightning rod who has been a loyal deputy in name only, and yesterday was even relegated to the back bench.
It is well known that Mr Hanson has been working against Ms Lee’s efforts to pull the party into the sensible centre to have any chance of winning power in next October’s election.
Mr Hanson has also been active in the party organisation to stave off change there, siding with former president John Cziesla who yesterday failed in his appeal against losing to an empty chair at the AGM.
Since returning from maternity leave, during which Mr Hanson led the team, Ms Lee has reasserted her leadership, making an important speech at the National Press Club that, while short on policy, was a statement from her that she is not going to die wondering about her efforts.
She has also managed to build a coalition across the party factions to remove old-guard figures associated with the Seselja era from the management committee.
And this week, on a day when Hanson supporter Elizabeth Kikkert was absent from the party room, Ms Lee rolled her deputy in a display of ruthlessness that shows she will not tolerate backbiting or take on the Barr Government without wholehearted support.
The big loser this week has been Jeremy Hanson, whose political future looks clouded. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The job went to Leanne Castley for an all-female leadership team, which takes the party a long way from its blokey reputation.
Labor has scoffed at Ms Castley being cast as a moderate, but only it has suggested that she is. Surely, the point is that she may be on the right, like others in the party who have had enough of losing elections but backs Ms Lee to steer the Canberra Liberals to more winnable position.
Ms Lee obviously isn’t prepared to be a time server. She may have just one crack at taking down a 23-year-old government and she is going to give it all she can.
That includes making tough decisions like yesterday’s shadow cabinet shuffle, in which Mr Hanson and Ms Kikkert were big losers, casting a pall over their political futures.
Realistically, defeating Labor and the Greens will be a big ask. And the next step for her will be to attract the kind of candidates that will appeal to voters in their particular electorates.
Securing a majority may be beyond her, but if she can position the party so it can secure the support of any independents that may emerge, that may be the Liberals’ best chance of forming a government.
Changing the perception of the party by occupying the centre will not only make it more viable in the eyes of voters but also more appealing to teal or Pocock-style independents.
It’s been a big few weeks for Ms Lee, and there will be no going back for the Liberals if they really are serious about returning to government.
But it is all very well changing personnel and the tone. Eventually, she will have to start rolling out policies, or at least giving the public a sense of what Liberals will actually do in government that will be different, and in a good way.
Oppositions tend to not want to show their hand until close to the election, which appears to be the name of the game, but Ms Lee should not leave things too late.
In the meantime, she is making all the right moves to put the party in a competitive position.
Loading ...
