Australian news and politics live: Leadership spill confirmed, Sussan Ley, Angus Taylor to go head-to-head

The Liberal party room meeting to decide the spill motion and then the leadership question will be held at 9am in Canberra on Friday.

As covered earlier, Phil Thompson and Jessica Collins jointly wrote to leader Sussan Ley and chief opposition whip Aaron Violi, asking for the meeting to be scheduled.

Senate estimates hearings continue in Parliament House today, with the programs for most running until 11pm, making it difficult for senators to make time.

Anthony Albanese says urgent action is needed on four key areas in the Closing The Gap report, which have either “stalled or gone backwards”.

The Prime Minister raised suicide as the “most urgent of those”, saying it shatters families and communities in his annual Closing The Gap speech delivered to Parliament House on Thursday.

“Compared to non-indigenous Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are 2.5 times more likely to die by suicide,” he said.

“As a matter of priority, our government will deliver $13.9 million to boost the national support line 13 yarn. A crisis counselling service designed, led and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

He also raised Indigenous deaths in custody and incarceration rates, the need to break down barriers to wealth and economic sovereignty, as well as the importance of education.

The PM’s speech comes 18 years after former Labor MP Kevin Rudd’s apology.

Experienced WA MP Melissa Price says she is considering putting her hand up for the deputy leader role, but maintains she supports Sussan Ley.

The Durack MP, whose electorate covers the top half of WA, said she had been discussing the possibility with colleagues.

“I’ve spoken to a number of people, why not?” she told ABC radio.

“I think I’ve got a lot to offer, I’m very experienced, I’ve been there since 2013. I think I’d be a good counterbalance to Angus should he become the leader.”

Ms Price also lamented the fact that she thought Ms Ley had been undermined since she became leader, partially because she was a woman.

“I thought once Sussan won the ballot back in May, it was obvious to me that there was still a team of winners and losers,” she said.

“She wasn’t going to get their support because people who had lost, i.e. the people who’d been supporting Angus, they weren’t happy about that, and partly it was because all of a sudden we had a woman as a leader.

“Julia Gillard was very famous in saying about her own Prime Ministerial leadership that it wasn’t all about her being a female, but it wasn’t nothing either, and I think that is definitely the case with Sussan.”

Liberal Senator James Paterson has held a press conference to explain his resignation from Sussan Ley’s front bench amid a challenge from Angus Taylor.

He is just one of a number of prominent frontbenchers resigning as the party now waits for Ms Ley to call on a party room meeting.

Senator Paterson referred to dire polling under Ms Ley, saying the party had lost 200,000 voters a month and split to the lowest point since the more than two-decades of Newspoll.

“It’s something that I didn’t do lightly. It’s something I did with a heavy heart. Sussan is a decent person. She is a good Liberal. She has been dealt many tough hands in the last nine months,” he said.

“But I no longer have confidence in her ability to turn this ship around, to get our party back on track, before the next election.

“And as a result of that, I had to resign my position in the shadow ministry to tell her that I am supporting a spill motion.

“If a spill motion is successful, I’ll be voting for Angus Taylor as leader.

“Angus is the smartest policy brain in the shadow cabinet.

“He’s a man of deep conviction, and courage and values. And most importantly Angus understands that this is a change or die moment for the Liberal Party.”

Conservative leadership aspirant Angus Taylor was elected to the New South Wales seat of Hume in 2013.

Before his resignation from the shadow ministry on Wednesday evening, he held the opposition’s defence portfolio.

His previous appointments include Treasury spokesman under former leader Peter Dutton, but also span across ministerial positions under the former Turnbull and Morrison governments.

Those included Minister for Energy, Industry and Emissions, Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity, and Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation.

Mr Taylor is a conservative Christian, born and raised on a livestock property in rural NSW, who now lives on a farm in Goulburn with his wife Louise Clegg and four children.

The 59-year-old joined the Liberal Party when he was 26.

He’s a Rhodes scholar who attended the University of Sydney and Oxford University and worked in management consulting and agriculture business prior to politics.

After Mr Dutton’s disastrous election loss at the 2025 election, Mr Taylor had put his hand up to take on the role but was narrowly beaten by current leader Sussan Ley.

Angus Taylor has formally declared his intention to challenge Sussan Ley for the Liberal leadership after a swathe of resignations from the shadow ministry kicked off.

Jockeying is well underway also for the deputy leader position, with one MP saying there was a “Melbourne Cup field” of contenders.

Mr Taylor resigned as shadow defence minister late on Wednesday night, saying he didn’t believe Ms Ley was “in a position to be able to lead the party as it needs to be led”.

He declared on Thursday morning that he wanted to lead the party.

“I’m running to be the leader of the Liberal Party because I believe that Australia is worth fighting for,” he said in a slick social media video filmed at a rural location.

“I believe we need strong and decisive leadership that gives Australians clarity, courage and confidence in providing a vision for the future.

​Read the latest wrap on the Liberal developments so far. ​

Queensland MP Garth Hamilton has declared it a “good day to be a conservative” as the Liberal party gears up for Angus Taylor’s leadership challenge.

The LNP member for Groom said Mr Taylor would “make a good leader” and insisted the ball was now in Ms Ley’s court on “how her leadership ends”.

“I think Sussan’s got the choice of how her leadership ends, that’s in her hands now,” Mr Hamilton said.

“I hope as a party, we do this in a way that is in the best interest of Australians. I think Angus will make a good leader.

“We need a credible opposition. We need strong opposition. We’re not at the moment. We need to make that change.

“And over the next 24 hours, we’ll see how many of my colleagues are willing to face up to that reality.”

As Grey MP Tom Venning walked into Parliament on Thursday, he added: “The sooner we can get away from this mess. And start putting the focus back on this government, the better for the Australian people.”

Canning MP Andrew Hastie, who has previously declared his own leadership ambitions, didn’t provide comment to the awaiting cameras.

Angus Taylor quit the frontbench on Wednesday night, setting up a challenge to Sussan Ley for the Liberal leadership, which could see him become the leader by Friday.

Following the last election, where Peter Dutton led the Opposition to its worst-ever electoral position in history, the Coalition is behaving like a chook in the period after it has had its head cut off and before keeling over dead.

The Liberals are fighting for their survival from their weakest-ever position.

But for what? And why? Because what is the point of the Coalition these days, and by extension, what is the point of Angus Taylor?

In the event the Opposition even registers in voters’ minds, these are the questions they will be asking and the ones that Angus Taylor must answer, and well, if, as is expected, he takes on the leadership.

​Read Latika M Bourke’s full opinion here. ​

Moderate Liberals have been tight-lipped in the wake of conservative frontbencher Angus Taylor’s declaration he’ll challenge Sussan Ley’s leadership.

Andrew Bragg provided a short and sharp response to reporters while walking into Parliament on Thursday morning when asked if there would be a spill today.

“Who knows,” Mr Bragg shrugged.

While SA moderate Anne Ruston appeared to rush past awaiting cameras, only offering “I’m here to do a job”.

She’s among other Liberal senators who have been locked in Estimates this week.

Many are understood to be pushing for the leadership saga to be held off until Friday.

Supporters of Ms Ley claim she hasn’t been given an adequate opportunity to lead the party, less than a year after Peter Dutton’s dire election performance, which saw the party record its worst result since formation.

A Ley ally also highlighted that the challenge had even emerged prior to their post-election review being released.