Sussan Ley did an admirable job exuding a sense of calm as she fronted journalists outside Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel on Friday. It was the end of a shocking fortnight for the Liberal Party leader, but she kept a straight face as she insisted she and her colleagues were on the same page when it comes to the topic that has riven the party for two decades: climate change.

“What I am saying is that every one of my team is absolutely united behind the focus that we have right now, which is to hold this Labor government to account for an energy policy that is destructive of households, businesses and indeed harming the economy,” she said.

It was a sentence that instantly raised eyebrows among the reporters in attendance. After all, the words “absolutely united” sound laughable when thinking about

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