Albanese says Ley ‘undermined’ as Farrer by-election battle looms

Speaking to reporters in Albury, Ms Ley’s hometown, the Prime Minister said Ms Ley had been “shabbily treated by the Liberal Party and (they) didn’t give her a fair crack as Liberal leader”.

“She was undermined by (new Opposition Leader) Angus Taylor and by (Liberal MP) Andrew Hastie and others, from day one, didn’t even get to give a budget reply,” he said.

“And I don’t think that was fair for the Liberal Party’s first female leader.”

Ms Ley – who is a longstanding Farrer MP and has held the seat for the Liberals for more than two decades – was rolled as Liberal leader in February and subsequently announced she would resign from politics.

Once Ms Ley formally resigns, it will trigger a by-election in the rural NSW seat, setting up a four-way battle with the Nationals, Liberals, One Nation and a Climate-200 backed independent, all vying for the lower house seat.

Mr Albanese’s comments come the same day as Nationals leader David Littleproud’s concession the rural party is staring down a “tough battle” in its plans to contest the Farrer vote.

“Well, we’re the rural conscience of the coalition. We will have two strong Coalition candidates, but we give choice to the people of Farrer,” he told the ABC.

“We haven’t been there for 25 years, but we have a strong membership that wants to put its hand up, and there’ll be implications also at a state level for potential state by-elections that could come out of Farrer.”

Ms Ley has held the seat of Farrer since 2001, beating a National candidate to the seat after former deputy prime minister and National party leader Tim Fischer retired.

Mr Littleproud reiterated the Nationals running against the Liberals was a matter of giving Farrer residents a “choice within the Coalition” and that the political allies would support each other through preferential voting.

Earlier, Mr Albanese did not confirm whether Labor intended to put up a candidate in Farrer.

When asked what message it would send to voters if Labor did not stand for the by-election, Mr Albanese said: “It says that we are a party of government, and we are in government, and we want to make sure that we concentrate resources where they most able to be used.”

He added: “We’ll wait and we’ll make a decision. It’s unclear when Sussan Ley will resign. It’s unclear when the by-election will be, but the party organisation will make that decision through the National Executive over whether we field a candidate or not.”