The Australian Liberal Party has elected a woman to lead it for the first time.
Sussan Ley takes over from Peter Dutton, who resigned recently, after leading the Liberals to a humiliating loss in a general election earlier this month.
Ley, who is generally considered to be from the party’s moderate faction, beat Angus Taylor by four votes, winning 29 votes.
Only Liberal Party members of the Australian House of Representatives and Senate are eligible to vote in a leadership election.
After her victory Ley said: “We have to have a Liberal Party that respects modern Australia, that reflects modern Australia, and that represents modern Australia. And we have to meet the people where they are.” She also said she wanted to “do things differently”.
Ley was born in Nigeria to British parents and moved to Australia as a teenager. She worked as a pilot and as a farmer before entering politics. She was first elected to the Australian parliament in 2001.
She becomes only the second woman to lead a major Australian party, after Julia Gillard who headed the Labor Party between 2010 and 2013. She becomes the first woman to be Leader of the Opposition in the Australian parliament.
Ley’s unique spelling of her first name is because she added an extra “s” because of her belief in numerology.