Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler has resigned from the federal shadow ministry as Angus Taylor prepares a looming challenge against leader Sussan Ley.
Chandler stepped down from her roles as shadow minister for science and shadow minister for cyber security on Thursday morning, becoming the latest frontbencher to abandon Ley.
“In recent weeks I’ve been contacted every day by Tasmanians, by Australians, who feel that the Liberal Party has let them down,” Chandler said in a video shared to social media.
“They don’t see an opposition that is tackling the Albanese government head-on and holding them accountable for their failures.
“They just see an opposition that is obsessed with talking about itself.”
The resignation follows Taylor’s dramatic exit from the shadow cabinet on Wednesday night, when he declared Ley was ‘unfit’ to lead the party.
Chandler urged the Liberals to better engage with voters on cost-of-living pressures, housing affordability, energy prices and immigration.
The party also needed to win back “Australians that we know should be voting Liberal but aren’t, particularly young women”, she said.
Fellow Tasmanian senator Jonno Duniam, a leading conservative, had urged Taylor earlier in the week to declare his intentions.
A party-room vote is expected as early as Friday, with the 51-member Liberal parliamentary team set to decide Ley’s fate.
Ley narrowly defeated Taylor 29-25 in May last year after Peter Dutton led the Coalition to a historic election loss.
But the party’s position has deteriorated sharply since then, with a recent Newspoll putting Liberal support at just 18%, trailing One Nation at 27%.
Taylor said on Wednesday the party was at its weakest point since its founding in 1944.
