Sussan Ley has been appointed leader of the Liberal Party in a tight partyroom ballot, edging out Treasury spokesperson Angus Taylor 29 votes to 25.
She is the first woman to hold the position in the party’s history.
The new leader will soon decide on her frontbench as she faces the mammoth task of uniting the party after a bruising federal election result ABC News reports.
Sussan Ley will be the new Liberal leader, beating conservative rival Angus Taylor to become the first woman to lead the federal party in its 80-year history.
The 63-year-old former deputy leader, who was backed by the moderate faction, received 29 partyroom votes compared to Treasury spokesperson Mr Taylor’s 25.
Ted O’Brien, who was most recently the party’s energy spokesperson and one of the key architects of the Coalition’s nuclear plan, will take the role of deputy leader, defeating Phil Thompson in the ballot 38-16.
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price did not contest the deputy leadership ballot as anticipated after it was clear Mr Taylor had not won.
The outspoken Northern Territory politician sensationally defected from the Nationals days after the federal election to join his ticket. The move was seen by some in the party as a power grab to boost Mr Taylor’s chances.
“While the outcome today is not the one that I would have wanted, it in no way lessens my commitment to the Liberal Party and the broader Coalition,” she said in a statement.
Ms Ley now faces the mammoth task of uniting the party after a landslide Labor election victory that saw former Liberal leader Peter Dutton ousted from his own seat.
Both candidates for leader were senior members of Mr Dutton’s team and therefore are closely associated with the failure of the Liberal campaign.
The Coalition currently holds just 42 seats in the House of Representatives compared to the government’s 93, with three electorates still too close to call.
Ms Ley pitched herself as the more centrist option, declaring ahead of the vote that the party needed to “reflect a modern Liberal Party” and that appointing her as leader would “send a strong signal to the women of Australia”.
“We did let the women of Australia down,” she said.
“We have to understand why people didn’t support us, that they weren’t inspired by our policy offerings and that they didn’t believe we were the best choice to lead the country forward.”