Peter Dutton has officially been elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party, with Sussan Ley elected as deputy leader.
Dutton, the former defence minister in the Morrison government, was elected unopposed at a party room meeting on Monday. Ley, the former environment minister, was also unopposed for deputy.
Dutton is the leader of the conservative faction of the Liberal Party, and was widely assumed to take the leadership following the defeat of the Morrison government at the federal election. It comes after leadership favourite Josh Frydenberg, the former treasurer, lost his seat to independent Dr Monique Ryan.
Dutton was first elected to parliament in 2001 after having a decade long career as a police officer in Queensland. He has previously been a front runner for the Liberal Party leadership over the years, most notably during 2018 before Malcolm Turnbull lost the leadership to Scott Morrison.
Sussan Ley has previously served as minister for aged care and sport and served as the environment minister in the Morrison government.
The pair come to the Liberal leadership in the aftermath of an election that saw many figures in the party’s moderate faction – like Josh Frydenberg – lose their seats to independents.
Also on Monday, David Littleproud was elected as the new leader of the Nationals, replacing Barnaby Joyce. NSW senator Perin Davey was elected as deputy.
Speaking after the Liberal Party meeting on Monday, former Prime Minister Scott Morrison said both Dutton and Ley were “incredibly experienced, well versed” and “deeply committed”.
“I think they’ll do an outstanding job and I look forward to giving them all of my full support,” Morrison told the media.
“[Today’s meeting] was a good opportunity for me to thank my colleagues for their great loyalty and support over these … three and a half years and to do that both on my behalf as I was on behalf of my dear friend, Josh Frydenberg, we are all very sad he couldn’t be with us today.”
“So to him, and all the Liberal Party supporters out there, thank you very much. It’s been a great privilege to lead the federal parliamentary Liberal Party and I handed over to Peter and Susan and wish them all the very best.”