Australian news and politics live: Angus Taylor elected Liberal Leader, Sussan Ley out

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We’ll be back with live coverage of Australia news and politics next week.

You can read the latest edition of The Nightly below:

Perth MP Patrick Gorman has given an unlikely defence of fellow WA MP and leadership aspirant Andrew Hastie saying he was disgusted at the Canning MP’s treatment.

Mr Gorman said Mr Hastie had faced criticism because of his young family and the fact he was a WA MP.

“One of the things that I found as a West Australian really disgusting about the way that this leadership challenge played out were the attacks on Andrew Hastie,” he said.

“We saw in the Australian just a week ago, attacks on Andrew Hastie saying that he couldn’t be leader of the Liberal party because he has a young family, we saw attacks in the Australian on Andrew Hastie saying he couldn’t be leader because he was from Western Australia.

“That tells me everything I need to know about the sort of leadership that Angus Taylor is going to bring, doesn’t respect working families and he doesn’t respect Western Australia, and I think we’re going to see more of that.”

The One Nation Leader was asked if Angus Taylor’s immigration focus was a cause for concern.

“No one will ever be as strong as One Nation on immigration,” she says.

“And it’s proven because over 64 per cent of Australian people believe that One Nation are the only political party to really deal with mass migration and the people we’re bringing into the country.

“So these people (the major parties) have been sitting on the fence too long. They don’t want to offend this one or offend that one. And yet our country’s going down the drain. People have a right to go to wherever they want to in this country and feel that they are welcomed.”

Pauline Hanson has confirmed that One Nation will run a candidate in the seat held by Sussan Ley.

The seat will be subject to a by-election after Ms Ley announced earlier today that she would be quitting politics.

The Nationals will also be fielding a candidate and, with a potential Teal candidate also circling, the Liberals will have quite the fight on their hands to retain it.

But Ms Hanson said the party was yet to decide on who the candidate would be.

“We’ve got a lot of expressions of interest,” she said.

“There will be a process that we’ll go through. I want the branch to be involved in this.”

Almost a year ago to the day, before the ill-fated Federal election, The Nightly was invited to Angus Taylor’s rural property in his electorate of Hume.

There, he spoke about his background, his core beliefs and what drives him in politics.

We also took some super cute pics of him with his corgis.

Read the exclusive story here.

“So many Australians can’t afford to buy a home,” he said.

“Australians who are working two jobs are juggling whether they can feed their families’ electricity bills.”

He also said he wanted to “re-establish home ownership as the centrepiece of the Australian dream”.

“We’ll stand for an immigration policy that puts the interests of Australians first, and puts Australian values at the centre of that policy,” he said.

“If someone doesn’t subscribe to our core beliefs, the door must be shut. If they import hatred and want to import violence from another place to Australia, the door must be shut.”

Strong words from the new leader, and a clear repositioning of the Liberal party back towards its core base of supporters.

“Record immigration has added infrastructure and housing pressure in this country.

“Our borders have been open to people who hate our way of life.

“People who won’t embrace Australia, and who want Australia to change for them.

“We’ve had the worst terrorist attack on our soil in our history. Our soil, by Islamist extremists.

“And as Australians, we’re less free. It shouldn’t be this way. Labor has undermined our standard of living, and has failed to protect our life.

“And I say to Australians - the first priority of the Liberal Party now, under my leadership, will be to restore our standard of living and protect our way of government.”

“It is clear we are running out of time. I won’t mince words. The Liberal Party is in the worst position it has been since it was founded in 1944.

“I don’t shy away from that and I know that supporters are angry. They wanted to see change at the last election, and they didn’t see the change that they wanted.

“I’m particularly conscious that we got some big calls wrong. It won’t happen again.

“If an election was held today, our party may not exist by the end of it.

“We’re in this position because we didn’t stay true to our core values - because we stopped listening to Australians, because we were attracted to the politics of convenience rather than focusing on the politics of conviction. That ends today.”

The new Liberal leader says it’s the “greatest honour of his life” to be elected leader.

He acknowledges Jane Hume as his deputy and pays tribute to Sussan Ley.

“I also want to acknowledge Sussan Ley for her extraordinary contribution Liberal Party and to this country. She took on an incredibly difficult task after a humbling election defeat back in May last year.

“Her work ethic has been absolutely relentless.. She is a great person, a great Liberal.”