The race is officially on to find the next Liberal leader after Peter Dutton’s dramatic defeat in the Federal election.
Not only did he lose the election, but also the top job and his Queensland seat of Dickson.
But who would want to take on the gig, which is basically janitor duties now with an almighty mess to clean up?
Coalition MPs say Angus Taylor and deputy Sussan Ley are the early frontrunners, with Dan Tehan also floated
Whoever takes the reins will have the enormous task of rebuilding after what insiders have described as a “bloodbath”.
Seats like Monash, Flinders and Longman remain in play, but the damage has already been done.
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The collapse has claimed several high-profile figures, including Michael Sukkar, James Stevens, and outspoken moderate Bridget Archer.
The middle of the party has been gutted.
The Liberal party need a fresh team with a long-term, two election strategy — one that supports women, rebuilds a strong moderate base and speaks to modern Australia.
As the post-mortem begins, many insiders are asking what went so wrong. They say they expected it to be bad, but not diabolical.
The campaign was late, failed to get its key messages clearly across to voters and didn’t connect with women.
But the internal tension is already showing.
Turning moderate could be what the party needs in this rebuilding process.
But on Sunday, Liberal’s most senior South Australian Senator Alex Antic said he wanted the party to lean further into Trump-style messaging to “make the Liberal party great again”.
It a sign of the growing ideological divide over what direction the party should take.
Another name suggested for leadership had been Canning MP Andrew Hastie with a swing toward the Coalition in his seat of Canning.
The shadow defence minister had been criticised in the media for being missing in action, but his grassroots community campaign appears to have resonated.
It is clear the party will bruised for some time, facing three years of a diminished party room.
But the Liberals face a deeper, long-term reckoning — not just about who leads them next, but also what values they represent.
https://thewest.com.au/politics/federal-election-2025/caitlyn-rintoul-what-the-liberal-party-needs-to-rebuild-after-dramatic-loss-c-18579060
