Damage to the Liberals done, Speakman made a dignified exit

2 hours ago 2

For a leader who started the day insisting to all and sundry that he would need to be blasted out of the Liberal leadership, Mark Speakman’s departure was ultimately a dignified and peaceful exit.

By the time Speakman was convinced by factional allies and his long-time political mate former Pittwater MP Rob Stokes that he needed to fall on his sword, the party had endured an arduous 24-hours as it tried to work out how to depose a leader who was widely liked and respected.

Mark Speakman leaves a press conference announcing his resignation as leader.

Liberal MPs were blindsided when, rather than going quietly as they may have hoped, Speakman launched the strongest defence of his leadership since he took on the job after the 2023 election.

“Reports of my death are grossly exaggerated and I’m here to fight,” he almost thundered on morning radio on Thursday as he did the rounds of as much Sydney media as he could manage.

It was impressive and defiant but also too late. The damage had been done and he could not have saved himself. The party had long shifted its mindset away from Speakman towards a new leader.

That leader is almost certain to be Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane, a first-term politician who has been touted as leadership material since she entered parliament in 2023. She is a former journalist turned businesswoman with no political baggage or factional enemies.

Despite her ambitions, Sloane has been reluctant to take on the job, sensible enough to know that being opposition leader can be a thankless task, especially for a party suffering significant brand and identity damage.

She also did not want to be the one to end Speakman’s leadership, meaning it would have required others around her to do that on her behalf. For a time, it looked like that reliance on colleagues to do her dirty work could have been an early black mark on her leadership.

And it would have been, had the painful axing of Speakman dragged on any longer. But ultimately, the messy drawn-out saga that has sucked oxygen from the opposition and stalled its ability to hold the Minns government to account ended calmly and without incident.

Speakman did not put up a fight once his loyal lieutenants told him his time was up. He also wasted no time in publicly endorsing Sloane as the best option to replace him.

He stressed that she would be an outstanding leader but also reminded his colleagues that she should be afforded the respect he was often denied. The “stakes were too high” for any undermining of the leader, he said in the only real criticism of colleagues in his final press conference.

Speakman’s removal as leader was cruel and poorly executed. But most agreed it was necessary. The Liberals have wasted far too much time devising a way to move him on and too little on prosecuting its policies and exposing Labor’s weaknesses.

Now it is time to act like a real alternative government.

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