Angus Taylor has assembled his shadow ministry, but unresolved tensions with the Nationals, policy baggage from the last election and doubts about his own authority leave his leadership exposed.

In allocating the various portfolios in his shadow cabinet and ministry, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has managed to pay off most of his current political debts, as well as disposing of some of his enemies. But he is now stuck with a few potentially brutal problems.

David Solomon

The first and most crucial is the National Party. While the Liberal leadership was bestowed on Taylor by a comfortable majority of Liberal Party MPs and Senators, it was the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, who was primarily responsible for undermining Sussan Ley and opening the way for Taylor.

Twice he dissolved the Coalition, at first saying it could not continue with Ley as Liberal Leader. That was patched up, only for the Nationals to walk away a second time when Ley insisted that three of the National ministers who had rejected shadow cabinet solidarity in a Senate vote would have to spend time in the backbench sin bin before they could be reinstated.

That too was fixed, with the time on the sidelines for the recalcitrant Senators significantly reduced. On this occasion Littleproud, in announcing the resumption of the Coalition, guaranteed that there would be no further splits while he and Ley were in charge.

Taylor, presumably, would have required Littleproud to extend that guarantee to cover his own leadership as part of the deal which saw the whole of the old National leadership group restored to their old ministries with immediate effect within his own new shadow ministry.

It is Littleproud, not Ley or Taylor, who has been calling the shots since last year’s election. Ley just happened to be the Liberal leader when the Nationals demonstrated that they were willing and able to walk out of the coalition if they could not get their way on what they considered to be crucial issues.

The Nationals will not be a quiet submissive partner in this newly re-formed coalition. They led the way in persuading the Liberals to abandon net-zero as a target for greenhouse gas emissions – a policy that a minority of the Liberals believe will further damage their electoral appeal.

The Nationals will want further policy changes, particularly over immigration (although a significant number of Liberals are sympathetic), but extending to other areas where they believe that Pauline Hanson’s One Nation is winning voters from them.

And if the Nationals try to enforce their will by threatening to quit the Coalition, the Liberal leader can no longer assume that they are bluffing.

While the Nationals came through the last election unscathed (in terms of seats) they are extremely concerned at the enormous rise in One Nation’s popularity as measured in the opinion polls and in the spread of One Nation branches and membership in National Party electorates.

Angus Taylor’s second problem as the new Liberal leader is that he needs to find a way to distance himself from his past – both on the policy front and in the way he presents himself to the public.

As Shadow Treasurer, Taylor was outgunned in question time by Treasurer Jim Chalmers who welcomed every opportunity he had to attack his opposite number. Chalmers often complained that he rarely had the chance to take on Taylor because Taylor asked him so few questions.

Since the 2025 election the main focus of Chalmers’ attacks on Taylor has been on the fact that on the eve of the election the Coalition promised to repeal the tax cuts that Labor had legislated to take effect this year and next.

Given that the Liberals appear to now be adopting policies insisting that taxes be cut, and rejecting possible changes floated by the government on capital gains and other taxes, the shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson and Taylor are going to have to find some way of blunting and countering Labor’s charges that the Liberals went into the last elections advocating higher taxes.

Taylor has a third problem. He has appointed some forthright and forceful people to his shadow ministry. Their job, of course, is to criticise the government’s policies and to develop, present and argue for policies that an incoming Liberal National Coalition would implement.

They have a long way to go. Currently the talk is mainly about ‘priorities’ and philosophies. That must change – policies will have to be developed, adopted, propounded and defended.

Meanwhile the new shadows will be judged mainly by their performances in the media and, more importantly, in parliament.

Question time is theatre. What happens there rarely, if ever, influences votes, because it has a very small audience. But reputations are made and unmade across the chambers – the Senate as well as the House of Representatives.

There are a few strong performers on the Opposition side, not least Tim Wilson, who will have the toughest match-up against Jim Chalmers. More may emerge.

But none will be judged as closely as Angus Taylor. He will be judged on his own account and he will be measured against the more successful of the people he has appointed as shadow ministers.

He must improve. Otherwise the whispers will start again about the leadership. His leadership.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2026/02/the-three-big-challenges-facing-angus-taylor/

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