Peter Dutton Elected As New Leader Of The Liberal Party

Peter Dutton has been elected unopposed as the new leader of the Liberal party, with Sussan Ley as deputy.

Spoken to the media outside the party room, Liberal Party whip Bert Van Manen made the announcement, thanking the former prime minister Scott Morrison and former deputy leader Josh Frydenberg for their contributions.

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"I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Scott Morrison, the outgoing leader, for his service and his leadership of our party over the past 3.5 years and Josh Frydenberg as the outgoing deputy," he said.

"Sadly, Josh couldn't be here given the result in Kooyong but he has provided tremendous service to the party as the deputy leader and Treasurer over the past 3.5 years, so thank you very much."

- Mr Van Manen

Following the announcement, former party leader, Scott Morrison offered his congratulations to Mr Dutton and Ms Ley for their leadership roles.

"They are incredibly experienced, well versed, are deeply committed Australians to both the Liberal cause and to the nation, I think they’ll do an outstanding job and I look forward to getting them all of my full support," Mr Morrison said.

"It was a good opportunity for me to thank my colleagues for their great loyalty and support over these past more than 3.5 years and to do that both on my behalf as I was on behalf of my dear friend, Josh Frydenberg, we are all very sad he couldn't be with us today and there was a rousing cheer for Josh as they should be."

"So, to him and all the Liberal Party supporters and those out there, thank you very much. It's been a great privilege to lead the federal parliamentary Liberal Party and I handed over to Peter and Susan and wish them all the very best," Morrison said.

In politics for two-decades, the conservative Queensland MP, Mr Dutton has held several ministries under Prime Ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison.

While Ms Ley, who has been the member for Farrer in south-west NSW since 2001 and has served as minister for aged care, sport, health and most recently environment.

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