Liberal leadership frontrunner Angus Taylor will have to overcome significant internal opposition to take the top job, with outgoing senator Hollie Hughes criticising the shadow treasurer over a lack of economic policy for voters.
Taylor is among a group of possible candidates to replace defeated opposition leader Peter Dutton, along with the deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, and frontbenchers Dan Tehan and Andrew Hastie.
A vote for the Liberal leadership is expected as soon as next week.
Hughes’ intervention on Monday makes public the criticism of Taylor, which has persisted for months inside Coalition ranks. She said many Liberal MPs did not support Taylor, blaming him for failures during the disastrous election campaign.
“I have concerns about his capability. I feel we have zero economic policy to sell,” Hughes told ABC radio on Monday.
“I don’t know what he’s been doing for three years. There was no tax policy, there was no economic narrative.”
The NSW Liberal senator is due to leave parliament in July after losing a preselection fight. She said Taylor, a senior conservative in the party, was partly responsible for a more than 3.5% swing against the opposition on Saturday.
“Whilst [he has made] efforts to get rid of people like me in his leadership ambitions, I am still in the party room until 30 June and get to vote for the next leader,” she said.
“The biggest issue – and I am hearing this from everyone I am speaking to – [was] the complete lack of policy and economic narrative was incredibly difficult for everyone out on the ground. People just had nothing to sell.”
Hughes said the Coalition’s expenditure review processes delivered very few fully formed policies, with proposals from MPs either ignored or quietly rejected.
“There’s a reason I won’t be voting for someone in the leadership ballot should they put their name forward,” she said.
Comment was sought from Taylor.
NSW Liberal senator Andrew Bragg said the party needed to offer voters more differentiation from Labor.
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“Largely speaking, we didn’t do enough on the economy, and I don’t think we did enough to capture the centre of the Australian public support,” he said.
“Traditionally, people have voted for the Liberal party for a better life, a better economy, and I don’t think we had enough strong economic policies to win the day.”
Citing Dutton’s dumped policy to force federal public servants back to the office rather than working from home, Bragg said the Coalition had been guilty of “fundamentally misreading the Australian society”.
“We have a healthy ‘live and let live’ ethos in this country, and we have diversity, and generally speaking that’s what most Australians are comfortable with.
“They don’t want to see division, and so I think it’s very important that we focus on the economic issues and that we avoid these cultural issues at all costs.”
The Liberal leadership vote is yet to be formally announced. Dutton was soundly defeated in his Brisbane seat of Dickson, won by Labor’s Ali France following a swing of more than eight percentage points.
Ley said in a statement on Sunday night that the party would meet when counting was complete in all remaining seats. Victorian Liberals expect former MP Tim Wilson to win back the electorate of Goldstein, as counting continues against teal independent Zoe Daniel.
The Liberal party room meeting will be organised by MP Melissa Price. She was named as acting party whip following the defeat of Queensland MP Bert van Manen.
