Liberal senator Jane Hume has offered a stunning rebuke of her party’s direction and leadership in the face of shocking polling, saying “something’s got to give” before her party falls into electoral oblivion.
“The party room wants to support a strong leader, and we have wanted to support a strong leader from day one. This cannot be blamed on anyone else. It has to come back to the leadership that we are facing today. Now, whether it’s Sussan Ley or whether it’s David Littleproud, they are the leaders of our two great parties, and they have to reflect on themselves and on [their] leadership,” Hume told journalists at Parliament House in Canberra.
Her comments come after The Australian’s most recent Newspoll found the Coalition sitting at a record low primary vote of 18 per cent amid agitation from opposition defence spokesperson Angus Taylor for a spill against Ley’s leadership. Hume has been mooted as a potential deputy on Taylor’s leadership ticket.
“You know what I’m really tired of? Gallows humour. Because that’s all we’ve got left right now. That’s all we’ve got left. At some point, we need to put a foot forward and say, ‘How are we going to get ourselves out of this crisis, rather than just sitting in the black hole and complaining about it?’,” Hume said.
“I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what the solution is, and I don’t know who the solution is, but what I do know is that more of the same simply isn’t good enough. Unless we can step up and demonstrate who it is that we’re fighting for, what it is that we’re fighting for, and why we’re doing it, well, why would Australians listen to us? Why would they listen to us?
“My colleagues are saying that they are embarrassed. That’s the word that they’re using to me – that they’re embarrassed when they go home to their electorates. They’re embarrassed when they have to face their constituents because this isn’t who the Liberal Party is. It isn’t who the National Party is either. We have to do something different, and we have to do it soon because we are running out of time.”
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