Life on the West Island - Studying Sussan

In the wake of a crushing West Island election defeat, the Liberals have handed the poisoned chalice of Opposition Leader to Sussan Ley. She is at least one federal politician who has visited Norfolk Island – although it was a long time ago in 2008 when she was shadow minister for justice and customs. During her visit, she showed herself to be friendly and approachable, spending an hour chatting to aged care residents on the Randa and attending an ad hoc potluck dinner at a local home.

In 2009 she said that the Labor government was ignoring Norfolk Island, barely giving them the courtesy of acknowledging or responding to their requests to Ministers and senior departmental officers on matters of importance to the Island. The Home Affairs Minister has instead focused on the Indian Ocean Territories with visits to the Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands. The Minister has also met with representatives of the Torres Strait Islands; however Norfolk Island continues to be ignored. Even though Norfolk Island has taken all necessary steps and is awaiting Labor Government action, the Minister for Home Affairs cannot find the time to reply to a letter written in July this year, detailing 24 key policy negotiations. Norfolk Island should be congratulated for doing a remarkable job managing their own response to the Global Financial Crisis; instead they are ignored by a Government that puts spin over substance. Minister – do you even know where Norfolk Island is?

Regrettably, when her party came into government, her tone changed and she wholeheartedly supported the removal of Norfolk’s self-government, speaking in 2016 in parliament in favour of the disastrous “local government” model. She did, however, offer as a sort of apology some positive comments about Norfolk Islanders: as one of the members in this place who has visited Norfolk Island - it was in my capacity as shadow minister for justice and customs a very long time ago - you cannot visit the island and not to be charmed by its people, its history and its prospects for the future. There is much warmth for the people of Norfolk Island felt by the members of the Australian parliament today.

So, who is this woman who has assumed leadership of the Liberal Party? It could be said from her own words that she has a chequered past. She has reported that at the age of 19, she changed her name from “Susan” to Sussan, apparently to get a better numerology reading. Journalist Amy Remeikis reports a conversation with Ley:

“Well, you know I used to be a punk,” Ley will start before telling you about her spiky purple hair, dog collar and nose piercing, hoping someone will say they don’t believe it.

Ley was born in Nigeria where her father was on a diplomatic posting. She was sent to boarding school in Britain but eventually finished up at secondar y school in Toowoomba. In a speech to the NSW Migration Centre, she revealed I hated high school, every single day I hated it, but looked for those little bright lights and put the best face on it. People laughed at me when I spoke, particularly in Queensland. I tried as hard as possible to remove my English accent. School was hell. It was like I was waiting to leave school to be the person I always was.

But it’s unclear whether she actually found herself for a long time. She’s been a farm hand, an air traffic controller and a Tax Office public servant and finally a member of parliament. She still holds a pilot’s licence but became mired in controversy when she took a commercial flight to Queensland at taxpayers’ expense, apparently to complete purchase of an investment property. For that misdemeanour, she was demoted from the ministry but after serving her time in purgatory, she was again welcomed into cabinet and 2019 became deputy leader of the Liberals.

She has now been in parliament for more than two decades but has little to show for it. In writing about her ascension to the Liberal leadership, journalist Amy Remeikis summarised that Sussan Ley is yet to make her mark in 24 years in politics. That’s unlikely to change.

In a similar vein, many commentators have surmised that she has been handed an impossible “glass cliff” challenge, when a new leader is appointed to attempt to cool voter anger but with little chance of ever leading the party into government. With the Coalition 50 seats behind Labor in the 2025 election landslide, Ley could be in for three bleak years.

Remeikis also reports that Ley carries some political baggage:

Ley was once a champion for Palestine, confounding the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine. The moment it mattered, she couldn’t back away from it fast enough. Because the only thing Ley has ever proved in politics is that she believes in nothing. And maybe that makes her the perfect leader of this leftovers Liberal party.

And Bernard Keane in Crikey catalogued the five frontbenchers in the party with leadership ambitions who are just willing her to fail – Angus Taylor, Tim Wilson, Andrew Hastie, Jacinta Price and Dan Tehan. He concludes:

That makes five Liberals who’ve either put their hands up to be party leaders or been mentioned in dispatches. Ley has been around politics for more than 20 years. She rejects the “glass cliff” stuff, saying she’ll be there in three years’ time, but she understands the risks of being undermined perfectly well. She saw what happened to Brendan Nelson, whose leadership was relentlessly undermined after he took over following the 2007 disaster, amid chaos about climate and which Howard-era policies to keep and jettison. She’s far tougher than she appears, and right-wing MPs, and the coterie of would-be replacements and their media mates, underestimate her at their peril.

It will be fascinating to study how the West Island Opposition Leader goes about trying to rebuild her shattered party.