Peter Dutton has been elected unopposed as the Liberal party's new leader at a meeting in Canberra today.
New Liberal leader Peter Dutton Photo: AFP
The Queensland MP has been in politics for two decades, and has held several ministries under Prime Ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison.
A conservative with a hard-line reputation, Dutton has sought to reshape his own image in recent days, as he faces the task of uniting and rebuilding the party following its recent election loss.
Former environment minister Sussan Ley has been elected unopposed as the party's deputy leader.
Meanwhile, Barnaby Joyce has been dumped as leader of the Nationals and has been replaced by his deputy David Littleproud this afternoon.
Senator Perin Davey will be the new Nationals deputy leader.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison addressed the Liberals MPs gathered ahead of the party's vote for a new leader.
Afterwards, he congratulated Dutton and Ley, saying they were "incredibly experienced, well versed, deeply committed Australians to both the Liberal cause and to the nation".
"It's been a great privilege to lead the federal parliamentary Liberal Party and I handed over to Peter and Susan and wish them all the very best," Morrison said.
Dutton needs to rebuild shattered party
After 20 years in parliament and several attempts at claiming the leadership, Dutton has become the new Liberal leader after former prime minister Scott Morrison's election defeat.
Dutton was assumed to be the next leader after the other most-likely challenger, former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, lost his seat in the election night "teal bath" of independents who claimed inner-city Liberal seats.
Despite no real contest for the leadership from the Liberal Party's moderate flank, Dutton has a challenge ahead of him to convince some within his party that he is the right man to lead them forward as the coalition takes its first steps as Opposition.
The 51-year-old Queensland MP entered parliament in 2001 after a decade as a police officer and working in his father's construction business.
Dutton left the police force soon after being injured in a car accident while pursuing an escaped prisoner.
In his maiden speech, Dutton touched on several issues that would hint at the direction his political career would take in the years to come, making observations on a sometimes "over-tolerant society", on unacceptable crime rates "causing older Australians to barricade themselves in their homes", and on the risk of the "boisterous minority and politically correct" to democracy.
And foreshadowing changes he would ultimately make himself later as a minister, he warned that modern crime and terrorism demanded a strengthening of national security laws and a rebalancing of the right to privacy with security.
In the last government, he helped to secure the AUKUS agreement, the most significant development in Australia's national security since the post-World War II treaty with the United States and New Zealand.
He also oversaw the Australian withdrawal from Afghanistan and was the Morrison government's most prominent critic of Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party as it has become more aggressive in the region.
His deputy is unaligned with the party's moderate or conservative wings.
Party members strongly felt the party needed a woman as deputy leader after it was punished in the election for a perceived ignorance of women and issues of safety and equality that dominated Morrison's term in government.
Deputy takes over for opposition Nationals
Barnaby Joyce Photo: AFP
David Littleproud will lead the federal Nationals in opposition after a partyroom vote in Canberra.
Littleproud defeated incumbent leader Barnaby Joyce and former minister Darren Chester in a three-way contest to lead the party.
The leadership was determined at the first meeting of Nationals senators and MPs since the Coalition's election loss.
Littleproud said it had been his dream to lead the party since he joined it as a six-year-old boy, 40 years ago.
"I believe passionately in the National Party … we are the conscience of rural and regional Australia right here in this parliament," he said.
"The National Party today starts its journey towards 2025, with a vibrant team, ready to articulate the policies that are important to regional and rural Australia, but also to draw on the experience of two former deputy prime ministers in Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack, to build that bridge of unity and purpose, to make sure that regional and rural Australia isn't forgotten."
Deputy leader Senator Davey said the Nationals would act in the interest of regional Australia from opposition.
The Coalition saw swings against it in urban centres and across regional Australia, amid perceptions that the Nationals were reluctant to embrace action on climate change.
Littleproud said the leadership vote was not about "lurching" left or right, but finding the "sensible centre", and he would uphold the 2050 goal for net-zero emissions.
National kept all 16 of its lower house seats at the election, but the majority of its MPs suffered swings against them.
-ABC
