Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has declined to publicly defend Sussan Ley's leadership following the Coalition's second split in less than a year, saying leadership questions are a matter for the party room.
The comments come during a week of turmoil for the Opposition. After the Coalition party room agreed to support Labor's amended hate speech laws, three Nationals senators — Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald — crossed the floor to vote against the bill.
Ms Ley accepted their resignations for breaching shadow cabinet solidarity. In response, the remaining eight Nationals MPs on the shadow frontbench resigned in protest, effectively blowing up the Coalition.
Appearing on Sky News' Peta Credlin program on Wednesday, Senator Price — who left the Nationals party room after the election to sit with the Liberals during an unsuccessful bid for the deputy leadership alongside Angus Taylor — was asked whether she believed Ms Ley could survive a second Coalition split within a year.
"I believe mistakes were made, absolutely," Senator Price said, "and I think leadership is judged by whether you can correct those mistakes".
Conservative commentators, including figures at Sky News, have been openly critical of Ms Ley since her narrow victory in the leadership ballot following last year's electoral defeat.
They have pointed to the Coalition losing support on its right flank to One Nation as the need for a more conservative leader and approach.
Moderates within the party, by contrast, argue a centre-right leader who avoids culture-war politics is necessary to win back inner-city seats lost to Labor and Independents.
Speaking on Thursday night, Senator Price said it was a "huge mistake" for members of the Opposition to pressure the government to recall Parliament after the Bondi attacks in order to pass legislation.
"There were those who would argue that we needed to put measures in place immediately, but my understanding is that we have laws that address these issues already, and we need to make sure that they're actually enforced," she said. "And that's a failure of leadership from the Prime Minister to have enabled that to happen.
"I don't think we should have recalled parliament as quickly as we did.
"And I think leadership is about not reacting after things have fallen apart, but about ensuring that we prevent that breakdown from occurring in the first place."
When asked directly whether Ms Ley was up to the job as leader, Senator Price said the decision was "up to the party room".
"In terms of my circumstances, I think I made it very clear that, obviously, the leader had lost trust in me, lost faith in me," she said.
"And, I suppose I felt the same at that time. I don't feel like things have improved to that effect. And this is a decision for the party room ultimately."
View this post on Instagram
Senator Price missed the Senate vote on Tuesday night, saying an internal process failure meant she was unable to enter the chamber before the doors closed.
Despite this, the Northern Territory senator — who was removed from the Opposition frontbench last year for failing to support Ms Ley's leadership — said she would have voted against the "ill-considered laws" had she been present.
Her position on the bill comes despite her strong criticism of radical Islam and the government's handling of antisemitism. This week, however, she said she had been contacted by "many Australians of Jewish faith" who had concerns about the legislation.
In a statement, Senator Price accused the Prime Minister of using the Bondi attacks to "ram through legislation to curtail and control speech because he wants to shut down debate on key policy issues, like mass immigration".
"Two questions linger in my mind," she said.
"Why did the government rush to pass this legislation instead of taking the time to get it right? And given that rush, what is the government trying to hide?"
