Editorial
Ley way

A little over three years ago, in front of the full bench of the Federal Court, lawyers for Sussan Ley argued she had no responsibility to protect young people from the catastrophe of climate change. She could freely approve coalmines without considering a duty of care.

Ley ran her case against a group of teenagers and an old nun. She argued that politicians are not there to worry about the future. It was an extraordinarily glib position and a reasonable depiction of the thinking that has destroyed the Liberal Party.

“It will not deter us in our fight for a safe future,” the lead litigant, Anjali Sharma, said outside the court. “The Federal Court today may have accepted the minister’s legal arguments over ours but that does not change the minister’s moral obligation to take action on climate change. It does not change the science. It does not put out the fires or drain the floodwaters. We will not stop in our fight for climate justice. The world is watching.”

Later, in Queensland, Ley said she was glad “common sense had prevailed”.

Five years earlier, Ley had been forced to step aside as health minister over an expenses scandal. Questions were raised over various travel claims, including to New Year’s Eve parties.

Earlier still she had attracted criticism for buying an investment property while on a ministerial trip. She said it was an impulse purchase, but it did change the nature of the trip and she paid back a little of the travel.

“I’m very confident that the investigations will demonstrate that no rules were broken whatsoever,” she said at the time. “I have nothing to hide. I have not broken any of the rules.”

Ley is now leader of the Liberal Party. Happily, she is not Angus Taylor. That’s about it.

Ley was deputy through the Peter Dutton years. She was there as policy was left unformulated and the party busied itself campaigning against the consultation of Indigenous people. She sat beside him through the farce of nuclear. She was there as the party was dragged to the radical fringe. She voted with him against cost-of-living relief and early childhood supports.

Ley has laid out a broad plan for the party she now leads. There will be lower taxes “because we trust people to spend their own money more than we do the government”. There will be a focus on education, families and defence.

She quoted Robert Menzies and said the same words could have been written this week by any member of the Liberal Party. “We are going through a period of political adversity. It will be the best thing that ever happened to us. We shall fight back, we shall think back, get long views, summon our courage and stir our imagination. In that case we shall win.”

Ley says she has to win back women voters and young people, the same people she fought against and betrayed in the Federal Court. She has to win back trust. She has to “listen, change and develop a fresh approach”.

If only values were like parliamentary expenses, and you could fix them up later when you got caught out.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on May 17, 2025 as "Ley way".

For almost a decade, The Saturday Paper has published Australia’s leading writers and thinkers. We have pursued stories that are ignored elsewhere, covering them with sensitivity and depth. We have done this on refugee policy, on government integrity, on robo-debt, on aged care, on climate change, on the pandemic.

All our journalism is fiercely independent. It relies on the support of readers. By subscribing to The Saturday Paper, you are ensuring that we can continue to produce essential, issue-defining coverage, to dig out stories that take time, to doggedly hold to account politicians and the political class.

There are very few titles that have the freedom and the space to produce journalism like this. In a country with a concentration of media ownership unlike anything else in the world, it is vitally important. Your subscription helps make it possible.

Send this article to a friend for free.

RELATED READING