Former Liberal leader Sussan Ley has been appointed to the board of Snowy Hydro by Labor Energy Minister Chris Bowen, infuriating everyday Aussies, who called it “the uniparty in action”.
Ms Ley was dumped as leader in February after tanking the Liberal Party’s popularity by taking a pro-mass immigration stance and helping Labor pass controversial “hate speech” and “hate group” laws during a disastrous nine months, from which the Coalition has never fully recovered.
After resigning from parliament, resulting in One Nation winning her old seat of Farrer, Ms Ley said she was stepping back from public life, but on Monday Mr Bowen and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher announced her appointment to the Snowy Hydro Limited Board.
She will now oversee the bloated and delay-plagued Snowy 2.0 pumped-hydro scheme, which was estimated to cost $2 billion when it was launched by Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2017, but has since blown out to about $42 billion.
Mr Bowen said while appointing Ms Ley and former Australian Energy Market Commissioner Merryn York to the board that the ex-Opposition leader had a detailed understanding of the project, which was developed during her 24 years as MP for Farrer.
“Sussan brings extensive experience in government and regional Australia, as well as a strong understanding of Snowy 2.0 and Merryn brings decades of experience across Australia’s electricity system, including transmission planning, system design and the integration of renewable energy,” he said.
“Their combined knowledge and skill will help Snowy Hydro deliver reliable power, stronger regional economies and more Australian jobs.”
But many Australian reacted to the appointment with anger on social media, and said it showed there was no different between the major parties.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts wrote on X “The uniparty doing what the uniparty does” along with an image of a two-headed snake.
Others said “uniparty confirmed”, “uniparty in action”, “it’s a big club and you’re not in it”, and “the uniparty is the only thing thriving in Australia at the moment”.
Ms Ley also benefits from a lifetime pension of about $220,000 a year, qualifying under an old scheme providing life-long taxpayer funded retirement payments. She earned $442,643 a year as Opposition leader.
Header image: Left, Sussan Ley while leader of the Liberal Party. Right, Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen at a fuel supply press conference (Facebook).
