ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has today been forced to clarify comments she made accusing a certain “daggy inner-west dad” of being “hopelessly out of his depth” on the Gaza conflict, after accidentally naming her own home affairs spokesman, Andrew Hastie, instead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“I meant Albo,”Ley said, with the kind of smile reserved for colleagues you’re not sure are trying to knife you.
“Andrew is a valued member of my team. Very valued.”
The slip comes amid rising tension within the Liberal Party, with moderates like Ley increasingly wary of the right faction’s quiet preparations for life after the next election anihilation. Party insiders say Hastie’s growing media presence on foreign policy is being read by some in the leader’s office as audition for the top job.
“It’s no secret Sussan’s here to get us to stumps,” said one senior Liberal source.
“But if the right can convince the membership she’s lost the room, they won’t even wait for the innings break.”
Hastie today insisted there was “no leadership tension” and that he was focused solely on criticising the government’s recognition of Palestine.
Still, the former Army officer’s newfound willingness to front every microphone he can on the issue hasn’t gone unnoticed by Ley’s allies, who fear that a second consecutive drubbing at the ballot box will be packaged by the right as a cassus belli to seize the leadership.
Albanese, speaking from Perth, said he welcomed the confusion.
“If they want to spend the next year working out which Andrew or Anthony they’re attacking, I won’t stop them.”
More to come.
