Australian Politics

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Angus Taylor has secured the defection of Nationals senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as part of his run for the leadership of the Liberal Party, which he vowed to rebuild by encouraging more robust internal policy debate and promoting fresh talent.

But the recruitment of Price – a popular figure among conservatives who raised eyebrows when she pledged to “Make Australia Great Again” and is expected to be Taylor’s deputy – has outraged Liberal moderates, who say it will push the party even further to the right and fast-track its destruction.

The Nationals, too, were furious at Price taking her number to the Liberals after the junior Coalition partner had nurtured her.

Confirming publicly for the first time he was running for the leadership, Taylor told The Australian Financial Review she was an “extraordinary addition” to the Liberal Party.

“I strongly welcome a strong, capable woman in Jacinta,” he said. ”We want as many people in the Liberal Party room as possible.”

Price, whose defection was brokered in part by Tony Abbott, said the Liberal Party was her “natural home”.

“The Liberal Party is the freedom party, the party of responsibility,” she said.

“Given the current circumstances, I think now more than ever, we need strong people within the Liberal Party, and we need to be able to rebuild, we need to ensure that we don’t lose support, broad support, as part of a wider coalition.”

She declined to confirm she would run as deputy, but said, “I will not put any limitations on myself.”

Taylor told the Financial Review in an interview that if successful in his leadership bid, he would draw on his experience in his business career of overhauling companies to help rebuild the Liberal Party at a parliamentary and organisational level.

He has spent the past five days talking to colleagues, including MPs who have lost their seats and Liberal Party members, about what went wrong in the party’s worst-ever election loss.

“There is a widely held view that it needs to be a more collaborative and collegiate environment, where we can have more robust debate despite differences of view,” Taylor said.

“It’s a big change for the party room and has come through loud and clear from colleagues.”

With counting still underway, the election drubbing has reduced the Coalition to 40 seats in the 150-seat lower house, with six still uncertain. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was the most senior of more than a dozen MPs to lose their seats.

While Taylor refused to criticise Dutton directly, Liberals have pointed to a centralisation of power in the leader’s office and a lack of empowering shadow ministers to develop policies as key problems under his reign.

Taylor said the party must improve at investing in the next generation of talent.

The Liberals have pencilled in a meeting in Canberra on Tuesday next week to decide the leadership. At this stage, Ley is believed to be ahead on the numbers, but one key Taylor backer believed the Price coup would help close the gap.

“It doesn’t do it on its own,” he said.

Price is a darling of the Coalition’s right wing, including influential conservative commentators who believe the best response to Saturday’s rout is to lurch further to the right.

Moderates backing Ley were incredulous. “That would be a hostile takeover of the Liberal Party,” said one senior moderate MP speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“On Saturday, our threadbare economic agenda and our aping of [Donald] Trump were rejected.

“This is an attempt to drive the party further to the right.”

As a Country Liberal Party senator, Price can choose which party room to sit with when in Canberra.

During her first term, between 2022 and 2025, she was a member of the Nationals.

Nationals leader David Littleproud was disappointed at what he felt was Price’s ingratitude.

“The Nationals negotiated an extra position in shadow cabinet before the election to give Senator Nampijinpa Price a promotion and shadow ministerial opportunity,” he said.

“The Nationals were the first to lead the ‘No’ case in relation to the Voice, backing Senator Nampijinpa Price early and before anyone else did.

“I appreciate Senator Nampijinpa Price has ambition that extends beyond the possibilities of the Nationals, and I wish her well.”

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan was scathing.

“Jacinta Price’s decision to put her own ambition over the will of the voters is exactly why people are sick of politicians,” he said.

“Jacinta Price was elected less than a week ago as a senator who would sit in the Nationals party room.”

One party source, who asked not to be named, said Price should run for one of the two lower house seats in the Northern Territory as a Liberal, not take a traditional Nationals Senate spot to the Liberals.

“If she’s that great, why wasn’t she vying for the lower house at the election?”

Ley is yet to publicly declare her candidacy but has been furiously working the phones.

Taylor, a former McKinsey partner who has advised some of Australia’s biggest companies, including Rio Tinto, declined to be drawn on specifics of the election failure, or the economic policies that he oversaw, which have been criticised by some colleagues.

He said there would be future opportunities for a deeper post-mortem.

“Dutts actually did do an extraordinary job holding the party room together,” Taylor said. “Finger-pointing is really unhelpful at times like this.”

NSW moderates, led by Senator Andrew Bragg, are overwhelmingly supporting Ley for the leadership, while most conservatives in the party are behind Taylor.

A conservative MP said the numbers appeared to be “finely balanced” between Taylor and Ley.

Before Price’s defection was announced, the conservative MP said some moderates in Victoria and Queensland may be prepared to back Taylor over Ley.

“Frankly, she’s just not up to the job,” an MP said.

A centrist MP who was yet to decide which candidate to support said Ley’s office was widely suspected of leaking to the media against colleagues when Dutton was opposition leader, raising issues of trust with some colleagues.

Former Liberal premiers including Nick Greiner, Barry O’Farrell and Jeff Kennett backed Ley to become the first female leader of the centre-right party, as first reported by Nine’s The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Thursday.

Taylor has faced harsh criticisms from colleagues about a failure to take the fight up to Labor on inflation and 12 interest rates rises during its first term of government.