Politics
Born in Africa, Studied in Middle East, Poised for Australia PMship: Sussan Ley
Australia’s Liberal Party (LP) has for the first time chosen a woman as its leader. Ms. Sussan Ley takes over from Mr. Peter Dutton after he led the party to a bruising election loss.
Ley, a moderate in the party, defeated Mr. Angus Taylor, who ran on a promise to restore conservative values. She won by four votes.
At the election in early May, the LP-National coalition, Australia’s main opposition party, suffered what observers are calling the worst defeat in its history. Pundits and Members of Parliament (MPs) blamed the result on polarising leaders, a messy campaign and “Trumpian” policies, which alienated women and young people in particular.
Ley’s win comes at a time when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continues in that role following his Labour Party’s landslide election victory. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) announced a Labour win of at least 93 seats, increasing their majority by 16, while the LP-National coalition had only 42 electorates, down from 58.
Born in Nigeria to English parents in 1961, Edgar Hosken Braybrooks and Angela Mary Braybrooks. Her father was working in the British Intelligence. Ley grew up in the United Arab Emirates before moving to Australia at age 13. “Travelling, and being at boarding school on my own, I had to either sink or swim. I was someone who decided very early on in life that I wasn’t going to sink.”
While still young, she changed her name from Susan to Sussan, inspired by numerology – an ancient belief that numbers have a mystical impact on people’s lives. “I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name, you can change your personality. I worked out that if you added an’s’, I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life, and nothing would ever be boring. It’s that simple.” She was married to John Ley for 17 years before divorcing in 2004.
Ley has held the huge regional New South Wales seat of Farrer since 2001 and has served as a senior minister in a variety of portfolios, making her one of the LP’s most experienced politicians. She was also the party deputy under Dutton.
For Ley’s deputy, Mr. Ted O’Brien, a Queensland MP, was elected. He was the Energy spokesman with the task of selling the coalition’s controversial nuclear power proposal. The Nationals, LP’s junior coalition partner, re-elected Mr. David Littleproud, defeating a hardline conservative colleague.
Ley said she wanted to help the party rebuild its relationship with Australians, particularly the women and young people who felt they had been neglected. “We have to have a Liberal Party that respects, reflects and represents modern Australia. And we have to meet the people where they are,” she said.
She told reporters the party’s loss would be subject to a review, as would all of its policies, including its position on nuclear and its net-zero emissions goal. “I want to do things differently, and we have to have a fresh approach,” she added.
As an adult, she has had a “wonderfully varied” career, obtaining degrees in Economics and Accounting while raising three young children. She has a commercial pilot license and has worked in the northern Australian outback herding livestock.
Elected 24 years ago to represent the huge constituency of Farrer, Ley became Health Minister under Mr. Malcom Turnbull in 2014, but resigned two years later amid an expenses scandal. She apologised for using a taxpayer-funded trip to purchase an apartment on Queensland’s Gold Coast. She re-joined the frontbench in 2019 after Mr. Scott Morrison’s election win, as the Minister for the Environment.
In that role, she was taken to court for failure to protect children from the harm caused by climate change. She won the case.
Ley is also controversial for her comments about her support for Palestinians. She co-chaired the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, a cross-party group aimed at supporting the Palestinian people achieve autonomy. But recently she has changed and “seen the light on Israel.”
Culled from BBC/ABC Reports
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