The winner of the Liberal leadership could be handed a poisoned chalice as they are tasked with resurrecting the party from its post-election ashes.
Liberal politicians will choose their next leader on Tuesday after Australians handed them a bruising election defeat that decimated their ranks and took out Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.
Deputy leader Sussan Ley will face off against shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, while senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has teamed up with Mr Taylor in a bid to become his second-in-command.
There is no reason to assume whoever takes the job won’t last until the next election, and the absence of a deep bench could bode well for them, Australian National University politics lecturer Jill Sheppard said.
But leading the coalition when it holds less than half as many seats as Labor is a tough ask, and there is a reason other contenders such as Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie were quick to rule themselves out.
“It does feel like a bit of a poisoned chalice,” Dr Sheppard told AAP.
“Usually, they at least pretend to want to run for a few days.
“The most important day-one job is to keep the party united, and that’s not going to be easy when there’s a lot of recriminations to be had.”
About 50 Liberal politicians are expected to vote on the party’s future, including recently returned MP Tim Wilson, who also considered throwing his hat in the ring.
Moderates have urged the Liberals to abandon culture wars and return to the centre but Dr Sheppard warned that might not solve the party’s problems.
Coming up with policies that stuck closer to the centre could make it harder for the Liberals to differentiate themselves from Labor, she said.
Some of the coalition’s lost votes likely bled to hard-right parties such as One Nation, which could spark internal debates about the importance of “culture wars” to some constituents.
However, it is unclear whether the next leader will be able to change the Liberal Party’s ideological direction.
“You’re still dealing with the same party room,” Dr Sheppard said.
“What we’ve seen with both Dutton and (Prime Minister Anthony) Albanese is that you can come from quite extreme parts of your party, but in order to maintain the leadership, you have to sit somewhere around the centre.
“To an extent, it doesn’t matter who is leader – the parties are pretty strong and they will constrain their leader.”
The vote will be the first time Senator Price has stepped into the Liberal party room after she defected from the Nationals to join Mr Taylor’s ticket.
The Nationals re-elected David Littleproud as their leader on Monday following a challenge from conservative senator Matt Canavan.
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