NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman resigns; tipped to be replaced by ex-TV reporter Kellie Sloane

NSW Liberal Party leader Mark Speakman resigned on Thursday afternoon after support among Liberal MPs shifted to Kellie Sloane, a former television journalist who has quickly emerged as a popular MP despite never holding ministerial office.

Ms Sloane, the Coalition’s health spokesperson, will stand for leader at a meeting of MPs on Friday, Mr Speakman said, and would receive his support, suggesting she is the frontrunner to lead the fight against a popular, centrist Labor government that has avoided scandals or serious scrutiny.

The change mirrors the Victorian Liberal Party’s decision this week to elect another first-term woman, Jess Wilson, as leader after a man failed to make the opposition competitive against a long-term Labor government.

Earlier on Thursday, after days of speculation his removal was imminent, Mr Speakman said he would fight for his job. “They’ll have to blast me out,” he,” he told 2GB.

“The honourable thing for anyone to do is, if they don’t have confidence in me, and they believe they can do a better job, they should come and knock on my door and tell me.”

When a delegation of MPs went to see him Thursday afternoon to encourage him to resign, Mr Speakman refused to see them, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Ms Sloane then told him she wanted his job, Mr Speakman said at a press conference, and other Liberal MPs said they had lost his support.

Elected to parliament less than three years ago, 52-year-old Ms Sloane worked as a journalist at all four main television networks before being appointed chief executive of the youth-focused charity Life Education Australia in 2020.

She represents Vaucluse, one of the wealthiest electorates in the State, a fact that the Labor government already uses against her.

Liberal MPs hope Ms Sloane will be more popular than Mr Speakman, a former barrister whose intellectual, low-key and sometimes verbose style failed to inspire the State or put pressure on Premier Chris Minns.

Mr Speakman blamed “brand damage” from the from the federal Liberal Party and the Coalition’s landslide loss at the general election in May.

A self-declared centrist who chased younger voters, he expressed pride in the the State party’s support for eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the net zero pledge that was repudiated last week by his federal counterparts.

“Politics is rough,” he said at at a press conference announcing his decision. “Politics is brutal. Politics is savage.”

Shadow attorney general Alister Henskens last week triggered speculation about a leadership change by arguing in a private meeting that Mr Speakman was ineffective and should be replaced. Mr Speakman came under criticism for refusing to sack Mr Henskens for disloyalty.

News that Ms Sloane would take over as leader was first reported Wednesday by Sharri Markson on Sky News.

Before striking out on a political career, Ms Sloane was a sought-after figure on morning television. In 2013, after being married for 10 years, she attracted attention for her decision to revert to her original surname from Connelly, her husband’s name, even though they had not broken up. Husband Adam Connelly was an adviser to former prime minister John Howard.

On Wednesday, Ms Sloane praised men on International Men’s Day. She said more work was needed on male health because they die four years younger than women and more often from avoidable diseases. She said suicide remains the leading cause of death among men aged 15-44 years.

The NSW Liberal Party’s last woman leader, Gladys Berejiklian, resigned in 2021 as premier after being found to have committed corrupt conduct for not disclosing to cabinet a relationship with her then-boyfriend, another Liberal MP, who used his office to conduct business dealings.