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TRANSCRIPT
"This morning there was a spill motion for the Liberal Party of Australia. That motion was successful. A ballot was conducted for the leadership. There was two candidates: Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor, and Angus Taylor was successful, 34 votes to 17, and is now the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia."
With those words, party whip Aaron Violi has confirmed what many have been speculating about for days, on the back of polling that showed the coalition's primary vote had slumped to a record low and was being overtaken by Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
The end of Sussan Ley's leadership after nine months makes her the party's second shortest-serving leader, eclipsing Alexander Downer by only 24 days.
Ms Ley has now announced her resignation from politics altogether.
"When I came to the leadership of the Liberal party nine months ago my mother had just died. One of the things she said was, when something ends in sadness, don't dwell on the disappointment. Be grateful that you had it at all. So today I want to express gratitude to the Liberal Party that I have belonged to and loved for more than half of my adult life, to the party room that elected me as their leader nine months ago, and to the Parliament of Australia that has been the most extraordinary workplace for 25 years."
The Deputy Leadership has gone to Senator Jane Hume, who fended off challenges from Ted O’Brien and Dan Tehan.
At the Senate doors, she has said the Liberal Party needs to reunite as a strong opposition to the Labor party.
"They're feeling poorer, and they're certainly not feeling safer. But that doesn't seem to be translating in a switch to the Liberal Party. They're not seeing an alternative in the message that we have, in the policies that we have articulated. So something has to change. We are now running out of time, and that's why this leadership spill is occurring today. Now this is not a reflection - this is not a reflection on Sussan Ley as a person. She is a very good person, and she has worked incredibly hard, but Australians are crying out for more."
Former Liberal leader and prime minister Tony Abbott has applauded the result, saying Mr Taylor is the best person for the job.
But another former leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has not reacted happily.
He has told the ABC that the party must move back to the centre to have a hope of returning to electoral success - and the election of Angus Taylor is a sign the Liberals want to go even further to the right.
"So they've got to stop living in this right wing populist bubble - which is where they've been and which has been so catastrophic for them - and get back and sound like serious business people wanting to do - to get a better outcome for Australia... These guys have got control of the Liberal party absolutely. They had control over Dutton - they burnt it to the ground. They've got their man in again with Taylor. Will they do even more damage? There's not a lot left to burn."
So who is Angus Taylor?
The 59-year-old grew up in southern New South Wales to a fourth-generation farmer, going on to study law and economics, eventually as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.
He has spent 13 years in Parliament.
Taylor came under criticism in 2019 after revelations that the Federal government spent $80 million on water rights in 2017 from Eastern Australia Agriculture, a company he co-founded and was previously a director for.
Referred to as 'Watergate', with then-Twitter users placing water drops on their profiles, Mr Taylor denied knowing about the sale or that his family benefited from the transaction.
REPORTER: "Are you still part of that corporation?"
TAYLOR: "No."
REPORTER: "Why was it set up in the Cayman Islands?"
TAYLOR: "Look, I have, I have responded to this issue. There's no basis in fact on some of the claims that have been made, and I've no further comments to make on them."
REPORTER: "Do your family have any links to-"
TAYLOR: "I've said everything that needs to be said on this. I have no involvement with that company and nor does my family."
That same year, Taylor was embroiled in a controversy known as 'grassgate' after it was found that he had met with officials to discuss illegal land clearing on a property partly owned by his family trust.
Mr Taylor denied any wrongdoing.
Terri Butler: "My question is again to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. I refer to the minister's earlier answers. Did the minister receive a single letter from any constituent about the grasslands listing prior to his meeting with the Department of Environment?"
Taylor: "Mr Speaker, the environment is not my portfolio responsibility. I have no idea how you expect me to answer that question."
Mr Taylor was later accused of using allegedly forged documents to criticise Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore in 2019 over her council's travel costs, later issuing an apology to Moore.
And during the 2019 election, Taylor - then the energy minister - was caught replying to his own Facebook post, praising himself for a job "well done" after announcing an extra 1,000 car spots at a train station in his electorate.
Mr Taylor was the shadow treasurer and Senator Hume the finance spokeswoman during the Liberals disastrous election showing in 2025, when they ran a platform of higher taxes.
And the new leader is already facing criticism for deposing the first female leader, with her supporters arguing she wasn't given enough time in the job and had constantly been undermined by the conservative faction.
But one of those supporters - Andrew Wallace - is happy to toe the party line.
"That's democracy. I obviously supported Sussan, but the party room spoke very strongly in favour of Angus and Jane and I wish them all the very best"
Meanwhile, Angus Taylor says he is up to the monumental task ahead.
"I won't mince words: the Liberal party is in the worst position that it has been since it was founded in 1944. I don't shy away from this and I know that many of our supporters are angry. They wanted to see change at the last election and they didn't get the change that they wanted. I'm particularly conscious that we got some big calls wrong, especially on personal income tax. And it won't happen again. If an election was held today our party may not exist by the end of it. We're in this position because we didn't stay true to our core values, because we stopped listening to Australians, because we were attracted to the politics of convenience rather than the politics of conviction. This ends today. This ends today."
