That’s not a coup. This is a coup: The leadership challenge the NSW Libs can learn from

3 months ago 5

Opinion

November 20, 2025 — 5.00am

Here is a tale of two executions. One was brutal, but swift. The other slow, poorly planned and only half-finished.

The first was how the Victorian Liberals dealt with their ailing leader this week. The second is the NSW Liberals’ approach to felling Mark Speakman, a cruel process which has dragged on for months.

Leader Mark Speakman (centre) is under pressure from Alister Henskens and Kellie Sloane.

The Victorian Liberals are a textbook example of how to pull off a leadership coup with as little pain as possible. A day’s notice, a challenger and the new leader Jess Wilson was installed. The NSW Liberals, meanwhile, have mortally wounded Speakman and no one is prepared to finish the job.

His MPs have been bemoaning the Coalition’s lack of direction, blaming Speakman’s office for being politically inept and, most notably, for failing to land a blow on NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns. Minns is coasting through his premiership without so much as a bruise inflicted by the opposition.

There are valid reasons for the increasing angst within the Liberal ranks. Public polling shows the Liberals are in dire electoral straits. The most recent survey from the Herald’s Resolve Political Monitor had the Coalition’s primary vote languishing on 28 per cent. If that number does not shift ahead of election day in March 2027, the Liberals will lose a clutch of seats and catapult Labor into majority government (it is currently only one seat short).

Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane arrives at John Laws’ funeral.

However, the question that has paralysed the NSW Liberals, who have undoubtedly taken a significant hit to their brand after the party’s diabolic federal election result, is not who could do a better job than Speakman. Rather, when will they blast him out?

There are two people who want to be leader – former barrister Alister Henskens and ex-journalist-turned-businesswoman Kellie Sloane. Henskens is a right-winger but unaligned to a faction. Sloane is a moderate, but also unaligned.

A key difference between the two is that Henskens is a lone ranger, forced to court support from colleagues on his own while Sloane has moderate powerbrokers Chris Rath and James Wallace to do her bidding. This is a very deliberate strategy on Sloane’s part.

The Vaucluse MP has been adamant that she does not want blood on her hands. She has not shifted from that position and is not prepared to knife Speakman for the leadership. What has changed, however, is that Sloane is now ready to be leader, after an initial fear that it was too soon.

But the sticking point is the first-term MP only wants the job if it is handed to her. Henskens, on the other hand, would be more willing to end Speakman’s reign, but only if it was guaranteed that he would emerge victorious. The result? A bitter stalemate.

Meanwhile, Speakman is in hiding. The opposition leader has not fronted the media for more than a week, and he made the curious decision on Wednesday to send Sloane as his representative to the high-profile funeral of radio titan John Laws. Sloane and newly elected NSW Nationals leader Gurmesh Singh attended together, photographed alongside Minns and other political luminaries.

Speakman stayed behind in parliament for a Surf Life Saving NSW event.

Just as Henskens and Sloane are not prepared to strike, Speakman is not prepared to go. He has opposition end-of-year drinks planned in his office for Thursday evening, and he has given no indication to political allies that he is willing to fall on his sword.

There is now only one option. If Henskens or Sloane want to demonstrate that they have the burning ambition and courage to be leader, they should to act or give up their leadership desires and back in Speakman to the election.

Sloane herself argued that opportunity only knocks once when she wrote a comment piece for News Ltd publications in 2015. She was positing whether Malcolm Turnbull could “pull the rug from beneath the feet of a first-term elected prime minister and survive the backlash”. She was, of course, referring to Tony Abbott, who was deposed by Turnbull later that year.

“Good things don’t come to those who wait,” Sloane wrote. “Loyalty is not always rewarded. There’s no such thing as que sera. Not in politics anyway.” Sage advice indeed.

Alexandra Smith is The Sydney Morning Herald’s state political editor.