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February 12, 2026 — 8:07am
Victorian senator Jane Hume is lobbying to become deputy leader of the Liberal Party should Angus Taylor topple Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, as another Liberal quits the frontbench to create momentum for a spill.
Hume, who supports Taylor, started phoning colleagues including incumbent deputy Ted O’Brien late on Wednesday night after Taylor resigned from the frontbench, the firs step to triggering a leadership spill.
Unusually, Taylor did not declare he was running for leader when he resigned, but he is expected to do so later today after his supporters resign from the frontbench.
Liberal MP Clare Chandler resigned from Ley’s shadow ministry early on Thursday morning, as Taylor’s forces create momentum for a leadership spill.
Chandler is one of a number of Taylor supporters expected to follow Taylor’s suit in quitting opposition portfolios, which can only be held by those who express support for the current leader.
His backers will also call for a spill to be held late Thursday or on Friday.
Hume told her fellow MPs she would only run for the deputy role if Taylor succeeded in beating Ley in the earlier ballot for leader, according to several people familiar with her pitch. Taylor and Hume led the economic portfolios under Peter Dutton last term.
Hume, a prominent Moderate senator from Victoria, is one of the party’s most energetic and articulate performers on social media and broadcast and is viewed as the type of Liberal who can appeal to metropolitan voters.
But she was dumped from Ley’s shadow cabinet after the election following two significant campaign misfires, fronting the abandoned work-from-home policy and making an off-the-cuff remark about “Chinese spies” that was weaponised by Labor in the final days before the election.
When Taylor lost a leadership vote to Ley last year, he was hampered in part by his contentious choice to run with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as his deputy. Hume is not as controversial a proposition because she is an experienced operator and former minister.
She has alienated her Moderate faction with her support for Taylor, a right-winger, and some key members of the Right do not support her. Some of Ley’s supporters think they could use Hume’s candidacy to deter undecided MPs from voting for Taylor.
MPs including Zoe McKenzie, Angie Bell, Tim Wilson and Melissa McIntosh have all been suggested as deputy options. Some in the Right are keen for Wilson, another Victorian from the Moderate faction, to serve as shadow treasurer under Taylor.
Taylor’s delay fronting the media on Wednesday night puzzled some of his colleagues. Also, his office deleted a video he posted on social media explaining his move on Wednesday night, raising further questions about the decisiveness of his challenge.
Labor sharpened its attacks on Taylor on Thursday.
“The problem for Angus Taylor is that he was Peter Dutton’s right-hand man. He led the charge to lift taxes on Australians, to lift the deficits, to cut working from home, to cut tens of thousands of frontline jobs, and the kicker, to bring in nuclear energy to drive up power prices,” Environment Minister Murray Watt told Nine’s Today show.
More to come.
