Politics

Federal

Political leadership

Opinion

James Massola Chief Political Commentator October 31, 2025 — 5.00am

If there was any remaining doubt that Australia’s two main centre-right parties are in a world of pain after their electoral thrashing in May, this week dispelled it.

As one seasoned Liberal observed: “We’ve got Barnaby [Joyce] talking about Barnaby, Sarah Henderson talking about the governor-general standing down as chair of Equality Australia ... Jane [Hume] talking about the nuclear prohibition, [Andrew] Hastie and Barnaby talking about potential rorts by pregnant women, and Sussan [Ley] talking about Joy Division. It’s total chaos.”

Ley’s call for Anthony Albanese to apologise for wearing a Joy Division T-shirt because of its alleged antisemitic connotations,

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