BEN HARVEY: Sussan Ley’s career as a muster pilot will serve her well in her new job herding obstinate MPs

In 2025 you have to be particularly un-progressive to consider having a woman as leader to be progressive but that’s the depth of gender disparity now being plumbed by the Liberal Party.

Well done Sussan Ley for prevailing in the political Hunger Games that is the conservative party room and breaking the historical sausage-fest of leadership ballots.

About time, though we should not get sucked in by Labor’s narrative that it’s been a trail blazer in this area.

The ALP’s acting like Julia Gillard was boss back in the 1950s, not a mere 10 years ago.

Sussan is not your cookie-cutter Liberal.

She was born in Nigeria and grew up in the Middle East (bet the good old boys in the party room didn’t know that before they voted for her!) before coming Down Under.

Sussan paid the bills as an air traffic controller and a farmer before she entered politics. They are unusual professions but excellent proving grounds for the new Leader of the Opposition, given she’ll spend the next few years herding National and Liberal MPs and making sure they don’t crash into each other.

It’s been a big few days for the blue team, which picked up Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after she defected from the Nationals.

A woman and a black woman. In one week. Seriously, can man (sorry, people) move at this speed?

The Libs could have picked up a diversity trifecta had Tim Wilson put up his hand to be deputy but having a gay man on the ticket proved a bridge too far.

The Liberals are hoping Sussan’s election will put to bed criticism that the conservatives need more diversity.

I think that condemnation is a little unfair; the Coalition benches are a rich tapestry of every type of white middle-aged man.

Remember that photo of Tony Abbot’s first cabinet? A lot of Y chromosomes wedged around poor old Julie Bishop!

Angus Taylor didn’t quite have the numbers on Tuesday, falling short by just four votes. Missed it by that much, as Maxwell Smart might say.

A lot of people think Angus was a victim of a diversity pick but not me; I reckon he was a victim of his own talent dysmorphia.

I don’t understand why he even considered running. The election proved the Libs need to better reflect the society they seek to represent and the only community a hard right conservative like Angus reflects is the Lords Cricket Club.

I half expect him to turn up to question time wearing an egg-and-bacon tie.

Angus has now got to spend the next two years pretending to support Sussan while he waits for enough Newspolls to show she isn’t getting cut-through so he can finally knife her 12 months out from the 2028 election.

Well might Queensland Liberal Andrew Wallace say “one thing Australian people won’t cop is a disunified opposition and we need to now unite and rebuild” but ask Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull about the realpolitik of the aftermath of leadership contests.

Sussan’s deputy is Ted O’Brien. Before you say “who the f..k is that?” cast your mind back to the campaign.

Ted was the hapless chap who, as shadow energy minister, was charged with selling the festering political and economic turd that was Peter Dutton’s nuclear policy.

He was elected deputy with 38 votes, well ahead of rival Phillip Thompson.

“Who the f..k is that?” I expect most of you are again thinking.

Phillip has an interesting back story. He was a soldier who served in Afghanistan, where he was wounded after a roadside bomb exploded a metre in front of him.

That was in 2009. He subsequently played in the Invictus Games and received an Order of Australia medal for his dedication to veterans’ rights.

A solid CV, to be sure, but Phil’s still in his thirties, so a bit young for the Liberal Party’s taste.

I mean, you can do women and black people in one week but youth as well?

Come on.

Sussan has a big job ahead of her but she can’t possibly mess it up any more than her predecessor did. In the words of that great political commentator Yazz, the only way is up.

To have any chance in 2028 Sussan’s got to do two things: maintain an iron grip on the leadership (for stability) and bring Australians back to the fold (through the creation and then communication of considered and rational policies).

The first challenge can be achieved easily if the Liberal Party resists the urge to tear itself apart.

The second is more difficult but attainable through something missing during the Liberal campaign: hard work.