Outgoing Liberal leader Sussan Ley will collect a lifetime pension of about $220,000 a year after resigning from parliament.
Ms Ley, who quit politics after losing a leadership challenge to Angus Taylor on Friday, is eligible for the payments since she qualifies under an old scheme providing life-long taxpayer funded retirement payments. She earned about $442,643 as Opposition leader.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is among a handful of other MPs who qualify for the federal Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Scheme (PCSS) due to being elected before October 10, 2004.
Ms Ley was defeated 34-17 during the morning leadership spill, and shortly afterwards said she would be tendering her resignation.
“I’m not sure what comes next for me. I look forward to stepping away completely and comprehensively from public life, to spend time with my family, to reconnect with my enduring passion, aviation, which taught me if I had an ego I’d be dead. It’s been quite useful in politics,” she said.
Her resignation will trigger a by-election in the seat of Farrer, where Pauline Hanson vowed on Friday to run a “strong candidate”.
I want to wish Sussan Ley all the best in her future outside of politics.
9 wins and 25 years in politics is a sign of her resilience in this tough environment.
One Nation will be contesting the by election in Farrer with a strong candidate that represents regional NSW, the…
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) February 12, 2026
Ms Ley’s departure from politics comes after she abandoned the Coalition’s previous immigration policy in favour of trying a win immigrant votes, and supported Labor’s unpopular “hate speech” and gun reforms.
One Nation is now polling higher than the Coalition in multiple major polls, and incoming leader Mr Taylor conceded the Liberal Party was on the brink of extinction in a speech after winning the challenge.
“I won’t mince words. The Liberal Party is in the worst position that it has been since it was founded in 1944. I don’t shy away from this, and I know that many of our supporters are angry. They wanted to see a change at the last election, and they didn’t see the change they wanted,” he said.
“I’m particularly conscious that we got some big calls wrong, especially on personal income tax, and 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 listening to the politics of convenience, rather than focusing on the politics of conviction. That ends today.
“The choice is simple for the Liberal Party: change or die. And I choose change.”
Header image: Sussan Ley (Facebook).
