Sussan Ley has pre-empted a new conservative Liberal threat to the stability of her leadership by opening a debate on lower migration on the same day her party’s conservative flank triumphed in its anti-net zero push.

The opposition leader put migration on the agenda at the annual John Howard Lecture on Thursday night, just hours after settling her party’s internal debate over net zero by siding with the Nationals over her Moderate colleagues, preserving her leadership for the immediate future .

Former prime minister John Howard, who was in attendance at the Menzies Centre event, used a question-and-answer session to ask Ley what policy issue she wanted to thrash out next.

“One is migration,” she replied, to applause. “I have said it needs to be lower.”

“I think this is a conversatio

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