By Renju Jose
SYDNEY, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Australia’s opposition Liberal Party on Friday elected former Energy and Emissions Minister Angus Taylor as its new leader, media reported, replacing Sussan Ley less than a year after the conservative party’s heavy defeat at the national election.
Taylor, a leading figure in the party’s conservative wing and the son of a fourth-generation sheep farmer, defeated Ley in a party room vote 34 votes to 17, the Australian Broadcasting Corp and Sky News reported, citing unidentified sources.
Ley had made history in May by becoming the first woman to lead the Liberals after the party’s election rout but her tenure was marked by a steady fall in support in polls.
Ley’s popularity fell amid infighting, both within the Liberal Party and with its National Party coalition partner, over issues including action on climate change, hate speech laws and immigration.
Taylor now faces the challenge of rebuilding support for Liberals, which crashed further after the May election. Recent opinion polls indicate the opposition coalition has lost voters to far-right populist Senator Pauline Hanson and her anti-immigration party, One Nation.
Two separate polls in January showed One Nation’s primary vote had overtaken that of the coalition, while a Newspoll published this week by The Australian newspaper described Ley as the most unpopular major party leader in more than two decades.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Chris Reese and Deepa Babington)
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