Angus Taylor has become Leader of the Liberal Party after deposing Sussan Ley. The leadership spill came after months of bad polling, with the Liberals’ primary vote dipping below that of One Nation. Indeed, the Coalition’s primary vote dipped below 20 per cent in some polls.

The poor polling precipitated a leadership challenge. To begin with, Andrew Hastie was also considering a run at leadership. However, despite having cut through, the conservative wing of the party threw their support behind Taylor. This is interesting as Andrew Hastie polled as the better leader.

Figure 1: Best leader (source: Sky News)

But who is Angus Taylor? And can he change the Liberals’ fortunes?

Who is Angus Taylor

Angus Taylor has been in Parliament since 2013 as the member for Hume, which is in regional NSW. He held ministerial positions under Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison. This includes being the Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation, the Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity, and the Minister for Industry, Energy, and Emissions Reduction. However, he was also the Shadow Treasurer; a position that will come back to haunt him.

Figure 2: Hume (shaded region)

Before entering parliament, Angus Taylor was a management consultant for McKinsey. McKinsey is a top-tier management consulting firm and is widely, and significantly, respected in industry. He also was a Director at Port Jackson Partners. His management consulting work spanned several industries, ranging from agri-business to resources.

Before his management consulting career, he studied economics and law at the University of Sydney, and then a Master of Philosophy at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. His educational background is solid.

Can Angus Taylor win?

Angus Taylor has an uphill battle to win.

Angus Taylor must first explain his poor performance as Shadow Treasurer. Specifically, he allowed the Coalition to be wedged on tax policy. The Labor government proposed lowering the lowest marginal tax rate. Instead of simply saying that the tax cut did not go far enough, the Liberals rejected the tax cut in favour of a reduction in the fuel excise. This was an own goal. Undoubtedly, the government will be keen to remind Angus Taylor of his prior position on tax. Thus, he must strongly support lower taxes if he is to have a chance. This should include proposing indexing tax brackets and acknowledging the folly of the prior policies. He could even retroactively argue that he did not believe that Labor went far enough. In any case, it is a clear target area that he must address.

Angus Taylor must next address his uninspiring presentation. He simply comes across as low energy and uninspiring. The lack of charisma will be a challenge when he squares against Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Jim Chalmers is economically illiterate, his policies are objectively bad, and he has overseen runaway spending. However, Jim Chalmers presents well and is a strong communicator. This enables him to pretend that his dismal performance is anything but. Angus Taylor must show that he can dissect disingenuous spin.

The Liberal Party also face several issues that a leadership change does not itself improve. The Liberals must clearly stand for something. This should ideally be individual liberty and aspiration. They must contrast this with the overbearing fist of state control that the Labor Party envisages, where the state dictates all facets of economic life. That is, the Liberals must present themselves as the party of lifting people up to achieve, and Labor as the party that tears people down when they do.

The Liberals must also differentiate themselves from the Teals, who have shown themselves to be as controlling as Labor. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the Teals resemble moralising busybodies. As Dean Koontz noted, ‘No one’s more dangerous than a man who’s convinced of his own moral superiority.’ Which in turn paraphrases Thomas Sowell’s refrain that ‘the most dangerous people are those convinced of their own virtue’. That is, the Teals sincerely believe that they are interfering with peoples’ lives for their own good. Whether people like it or not. The Liberals must stand apart as believing in aspiration, ambition, and individual achievement.

One Nation is a challenge for the Liberals. The Liberals must resist the temptation to attack One Nation. One Nation presents a clear, cogent, message. It also is a siren song to people who are tired of the Liberals’ infighting, dithering, and prevarication. One Nation has surged, at least partly, because the Liberals failed to attack Labor. Simply proceeding to focus on One Nation, rather than Labor, will exacerbate this issue.

The 2025 election performance was dismal because the Liberals failed to stand for a clear policy position based on aspiration and ambition. They failed to fight Labor on its tax-related lies, its lies during the Voice, or Division 296, which was a target-rich zone. Many Liberal voters are tired of the Liberals failing to take the fight to labor.

Labor will also attempt to frame the removal of Sussan Ley as sexist. They will claim that this was a misogynistic takedown of the Liberals’ first female leader. The Liberals must rebut this. As impolitic as it might sound, they need only point to the dismal poll performance. Any leader with such poor performance would be removed, regardless of gender.

The net result is that Angus Taylor will have difficulty defeating Labor. He must work on his presentation and his personal cut through. He must clearly show that he supports lower taxes and this must involve a very clear policy pronouncement that is made very early. He must consistently fight Labor. Perhaps then the Liberals might regain some of the voters they are losing to One Nation.