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political Stephanie Borys

Liberal, National parties set to decide leadership positions following federal election loss

Peter Dutton looks set to become the Liberal Party leader unopposed. (ABC News: Tamara Penniket)

The Liberals and Nationals will meet today to decide who should lead the parties following the federal election loss.

While voters had their say on who should run the country just over a week ago, politicians will today choose the new-look leadership teams for the Coalition.

On election night, then-prime minister Scott Morrison announced his intention to move to the backbench.

"I, as leader, take responsibility for the wins and the losses … as a result I will be handing over the leadership at the next partyroom meeting to ensure the party can be taken forward under new leadership, which is the appropriate thing to do," he said.

The Liberal Party meeting will be quick and simple because only two people have come forward for the jobs.

Peter Dutton, who has been the defence, home affairs and immigration minister, will become the next opposition leader.

His deputy will be former environment minister Sussan Ley, who is a New South Wales MP and is not aligned with the conservative or moderate factions.

Mr Dutton first tried to secure the Liberal leadership in 2018 but at the time lost to Mr Morrison.

Some of his colleagues have raised concerns that he may be "hard to sell" to voters because he has a perception problem, but publicly MPs have backed him including Queensland Liberal MP Karen Andrews.

"I think to have Peter Dutton as the leader and Sussan Ley as the deputy leader would give the breadth, the skills and the experience that we need to take us forward," she said.

Farrer MP Sussan Ley says she wants to be deputy leader of the Liberal Party. (ABC News: Marco Catalano )

Her comments were supported by another Queensland colleague Stuart Robert, who said the new leadership team was what the party needed to win the next election.

"We are talking about very solid political leaders … they are very solid in terms of how they reach out with colleagues," she said.

"They will be a very strong leadership team."

New South Wales Liberal senator Hollie Hughes echoed those comments.

"Peter Dutton I think is going to make an outstanding leader for the Liberal Party, and he is someone who is going to bring us back to that centre-right perspective as we look to rebuild into the future," she said.

Three-way contest to decide Nationals' leadership

David Littleproud will seek the National Party's top position. (Supplied: David Littleproud)

The Nationals leadership is not as straightforward, with three MPs putting their hand up for the top job.

Leader Barnaby Joyce has made clear his intention to stay.

He said while the final decision was the party room's to make, he insisted he had delivered for regional Australia.

"I think we have a pretty solid track record, in fact a track record that would be the envy of many other parties," he told the ABC.

"And we have a strong message that we have built on, we are making Australia as strong as possible as quickly as possible.

"From inland rail to the construction of dams … allied health systems … that have made regional people better, put them in a better standard of living, in a stronger position, and we want to continue that on and I want to make sure that we bring the party together because it's a party that I love and I have served since I joined it in 1997."

However some of his colleagues believe a change in leader is necessary in order for the Coalition to have a chance of winning the next federal election.

The National Party kept all 16 seats in the lower house, but there were large swings against the party in some electorates.

Darren Chester will also put his hand up to be Nationals leader. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)

Victorian MP Darren Chester, who has also put his hand up for the top job, told the ABC last week the party must listen better to voters.

"I think they want us to be perhaps more moderate and respectful in debates," he said.

"They want a calmer democracy."

Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud also confirmed he wanted a promotion. And he is highly likely to be able to secure enough votes to succeed.

Parties to turn focus to policy after leadership decided

The Nationals and Liberals will meet separately to vote on the leadership positions today but once they are decided, their attention will turn to policy.

Climate change was a key issue for many voters at the election. The Greens picked up three seats in Queensland while teal independents won a number of electorates previously held by moderate Liberals.

While the major parties have the same commitment of net zero emissions by 2050, their midterm targets are different.

As politicians arrived back in Canberra ahead of the leadership votes, some reflected on the message that voters sent to the Coalition.

Queensland Nationals backbencher Michelle Landry said the current policy clearly was not enough.

"Climate change is something that we seriously need to talk about," she said.

"I think that it's caused us a lot of grief and that we need to come to a serious decision about it."

Liberal MP Bridget Archer says the opposition needs to focus on climate science. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)

A similar message was echoed by Liberal MP Bridget Archer, who retained the Liberals' most marginal seat in Tasmania.

"We need to take climate science seriously and I look to see what we can do in this term," she said.

Speaking on Monday morning, former Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman, who lost his seat of North Sydney to independent Kylea Tink, said he thought the opposition should back Labor's target of 43 per cent reductions by 2030.

"I think that would be the sensible thing to do, I think it's the democratic thing to do and I think it would be an important signal that the Liberal Party has recognised that climate change was a factor in so many seats," he said.

"And I think it's wrong to say it's just a factor in seats like the one that I represented.

"I actually think that concern about climate change exists across the country because if you're sitting with tourism business on the Great Barrier Reef you know the damage that climate change poses to your future."

However when asked if the Coalition needed to increase its 2030 target, Mr Joyce would not say.

"We have set a target, we negotiated one in the National Party and we are making sure that we have made that commitment and we will do our very best endeavours to arrive at it, noting that Australia is an honourable country that meets its commitments," he said.

Labor will govern in its own right securing 76 seats
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