Angus Taylor has declared a political reset, vowing to drag the Liberal Party of Australia back from what he calls its darkest hour.
“It is the greatest honour of my life to be elected as the leader of the Liberal Party,” Taylor said, invoking the values of “courage and service” taught by his parents and pledging he is “absolutely determined to fight for our nation.”
In a blunt assessment, he admitted, “The Liberal Party is in the worst position that it has been since it was founded in 1944.”
Even more stark: “If an election was held today, our party may not exist by the end of it.”
The new leader and Member for Hume did not flinch from past mistakes.
“We got some big calls wrong, especially on personal income tax, and it won’t happen again,” he conceded, before delivering a defining ultimatum: “Change or die, and I choose change.”
Taylor thanked colleagues and confirmed Jane Hume as Deputy Leader, while praising Sussan Ley for her “extraordinary contribution” after last year’s defeat.
He signalled renewed Coalition unity, saying he looked forward to working with David Littleproud.
But his real target was Labor. Naming Anthony Albanese directly, Taylor promised the Liberals would “fight every bad tax, every reckless spending initiative, every policy that drives up inflation and keeps interest rates higher for longer.”
He painted a nation under strain: families “juggling whether they can feed their families or pay their electricity bills,” young Australians locked out of home ownership, and “record immigration” placing pressure on housing and infrastructure.
“We’re in this position because we didn’t stay true to our core values, because we stopped listening to Australians,” he said. “This ends today.”
Under his leadership, he pledged to “re-establish home ownership as the centrepiece of the Australian dream,” stand for “lower inflation, lower interest rates and lower taxes,” and scrap what he called Labor’s “bad carbon taxes.”
“If someone doesn’t subscribe to our core beliefs – the door must be shut,” he warned on immigration and national security.
Framing the contest as existential, Taylor said the party’s mission is to “restore our standard of living and protect our way of life,” adding, “Bigger government isn’t the solution to Australia’s problems. Australians are the solution.”
“Our team will fight the worst Labor government in Australian history,” he declared.
“Australia is worth fighting for.”
