Blood is being spilled across the political aisle as party leaderships are on the table and powerbrokers carve up the spoils of victory.
Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley has officially announced her tilt at the leadership, confirming she will put herself forward to refresh a decimated party.
The Liberals will meet in Canberra on Tuesday to choose a new leader, with shadow treasurer Angus Taylor also courting colleagues for the top job.
“I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia,” Ms Ley told Seven’s Sunrise on Friday.
Ms Ley acknowledged the Liberals suffered a significant defeat and needed to “meet the Australian people where they are, because clearly we didn’t do that at the last election”.
The bloodletting continues ahead of Tuesday’s meeting as the coalition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defected from sitting with the National Party to the Liberals.
As a Country Liberal Party senator from the Northern Territory, she can choose to sit in either partyroom but the spot has historically sided with the Nationals.
Her colleagues have expressed disappointment as it means the loss of a Nationals senator takes the party below the five needed in the Senate to receive entitlements offered to larger parties.
Queensland MP Michelle Landry branded it disloyal.
“We’re all very upset that she’s decided to move over to the Liberals and I just think that there’s a lack of loyalty there,” she told ABC radio.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie accused the Liberals of actively recruiting Senator Nampijinpa Price five days out from an election.
“That is not the behaviour of trusted partners,” she told Sky News.
“I’ve been on the phone late into last night with territorians in the CLP very concerned about this decision and what it means for them and their representation.”
People who ran under one party and then jumped ship when they were elected should be disendorsed and run under their own banner, Ms Landry said.
Senator Price is rumoured to be pushing for the deputy Liberal leadership under Mr Taylor but hasn’t officially confirmed a tilt.
“To be quite honest, it is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected (in 2022) … and chose at that time that I needed to sit in the National partyroom,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB.
Tony Abbott had spoken to her and supported the move, she said.
Despite its landslide win, Labor hasn’t emerged unscathed in the election aftermath with a brutal move from internal powerbrokers resulting in two cabinet ministers being dumped to make way for fresh faces.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and Industry Minister Ed Husic were axed from the ministry as Labor’s more progressive left and more conservative right factions carved up the 30 spots.
Mr Dreyfus will be replaced in the ministry by Victorian MP Sam Rae, a factional ally of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles who hails from the same state.
Mr Husic was dumped to rebalance the ledger between the NSW and Victorian right with the former over represented in cabinet as spots are decided on a proportional basis between factions and states.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the government had to “balance stability with some renewal”, acknowledging it was tough for the two senior MPs.
“But that’s how democratic processes work,” he told ABC TV.
Labor senators Jess Walsh and Tim Ayres will also be promoted.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will address caucus on Friday where the ministerial nominations will be rubber-stamped.
Mr Albanese will then allocate portfolios over the weekend ahead of the ministry being sworn in on Tuesday.
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