MEDIA RELEASE 13 February 2026
Liberal leadership change confirms the party's decline.
United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet says that "today's change of leadership only confirms what many Australians already know, the Liberal Party has lost its way.
"The media will argue that the problem is that the party does not have enough women. They're wrong, the problem is that it has lost its masculinity. It has become timid and cautious to the point of paralysis, consulting when it should lead, adjusting optics when it should decide.
"That is the problem, nothing is ever said clearly, nothing is ever done decisively. Positions are floated, softened, tested, and reworded until they mean almost nothing at all.
"They adore process, they love reviews, consultations, frameworks and stakeholder engagement. They review the review. They establish committees to examine committees.
"Meanwhile the country burns. Australia does not need more processes. It needs strength.
"Seventeen Liberal MPs voted to keep Sussan Ley despite disastrously low polling. That speaks volumes. And those who backed Angus Taylor as the alternative are offering continuity, not renewal.
"As Energy Minister, Mr Taylor bound Australia to Net Zero targets that drive up power prices and undermine industry. The Liberals know Net Zero is damaging, yet they are too afraid of hostile headlines from the ABC to scrap it outright. So they manage it instead.
"During COVID, Mr Taylor stood alongside Scott Morrison as lockdown was endorsed. He was no voice of resistance and was not a defender of civil liberties. For Australians who lost livelihoods and freedoms, silence still matters.
"He didn't speak plainly against his party working with Labor to pass the new "anti-speech" laws either," said Senator Babet.
"On immigration, he speaks in percentage reductions rather than firm caps. In trying not to offend anyone, the Liberals convince no one.
"As economic spokesman, he failed to articulate a bold alternative while families buckled under cost-of-living pressures. According to some within his own party his nickname is "TACO" (Taylor Always Chickens Out).
"Jane Hume as deputy offers no course correction. In 2024 she voted against my urgency motion stating that babies born alive after a failed abortion deserve care.
"Australia does not need more reviews, frameworks and committees. It needs strength. The Liberal party is utterly bereft of people with courage and full of people who believe in nothing.
"They're worse than Labor, like a ship drifting at sea without a rudder.
"This party cannot be saved," said Senator Babet.
ENDS.
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