Updated ,first published
Liberal senator Jonno Duniam says the party’s leadership coup in February was the tipping point for his decision to quit politics, the latest blow to a beleaguered Coalition after more than a year of turmoil.
The opposition home affairs spokesman announced on Sunday he would not recontest his Tasmanian Senate seat at the next election, saying he had pondered his political future for years because of the toll the job had taken on his family.
“In terms of moments that crystallised it for me, I have to say I think the leadership change earlier this year was the point in time where I thought, ‘I’ve had enough, I think there are things that I need to tend to that are more important than this’,” Duniam said at a press conference in Hobart.
The 43-year-old’s departure is a significant hit to the party for which he was elected in 2016.
The conservative factional heavyweight had been viewed as a rising star within the Coalition, taking on the prominent home affairs portfolio under former leader Sussan Ley. Those responsibilities grew to include direct control over immigration policy under Angus Taylor, a priority for the opposition leader in trying to fend off the rise of One Nation.
Revelations that Duniam, a key member of Ley’s leadership team, was involved in plotting leadership change built momentum for Taylor to challenge the leadership, and his resignation from Ley’s frontbench helped force the spill.
Duniam insisted the Coalition’s electoral prospects did not factor into his decision, and that the time had come for him to reprioritise his family – as he had contemplated since his re-election in 2022. His resignation will force a shadow ministry reshuffle after Taylor overhauled the frontbench when he took on the leadership in February.
“Where we’re at in the polls is irrelevant,” he said. “If I’m talking about family versus work, then I can tell you now, it wouldn’t matter whether we were on the precipice of a landslide win or the doldrums of electoral defeat, I would be making the same decision.”
Duniam said his children had struggled with his absence during his career in politics.
“When I brought home the Sunday Tasmanian [reporting the resignation] and sat it on the table, my youngest son when he saw it… said, ‘I thought this day would never come’,” he said.
The senator acknowledged he was leaving at a “difficult time” for the party, and said he was staying on for a short time at Taylor’s request to finalise the party’s immigration policies.
Duniam said he was confident in Taylor’s leadership, but warned his colleagues that they needed to act as if the party could form government in its own right, after a week of MPs sending out conflicting messages about potential deals with One Nation.
“If we’re just going to wave the white flag and say that it’s over now, we’ve just got to do deals … to get across the line, then we’re not doing our job properly,” he said.
“I’ve never met … a member of the Labor Party who says: ‘It’s all right, you vote Green first, and we’ll do a deal with the Greens after the fact.’ ”
Duniam is the second Liberal Tasmanian senator to flag resigning. Last week, Wendy Askew said she had decided not to nominate for preselection in 2028.
It leaves the party’s top two spots on the state’s ticket empty as Pauline Hanson’s daughter, Lee, enters the race as a candidate for One Nation. State Liberal strategist, Brad Stansfield, has announced he will stand for preselection.
After the Coalition suffered a major defeat in the 2025 election and split twice in the aftermath as the party grappled with its future direction, Ley was ousted after less than a year as leader. One Nation has eaten into the party’s primary vote, leaping ahead of the opposition in the polls.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, Duniam’s counterpart, said the Liberal Party was losing one of its “best and brightest”.
“The reality is, whenever there’s been something squarely in the national interest, I’ve never seen him be anything other than professional,” Burke said, nominating bipartisan support for the banning of hate groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir earlier this year.
“We are a safer nation because that’s been done, and it wouldn’t have happened were it not for his leadership.”
Taylor thanked Duniam, and said that public service came with significant personal sacrifice.
“Intelligent, articulate and always across his brief, Jonno is someone whose departure from the parliament is a great loss to the Liberal Party and to the service of Australians and the national interest,” Taylor said in a statement.
Fellow Coalition frontbencher Matt O’Sullivan, who with Duniam backed Andrew Hastie’s abandoned tilt to succeed Ley, said Duniam had made an enormous contribution to the party.
“Not only will we miss Jonno’s wisdom, judgment and many talents, but I’ll personally miss a great mate and trusted confidant,” O’Sullivan said.
“While we’ll all feel his absence, I know he leaves with much to be proud of and every reason to look forward to what comes next.”
Opposition defence industry spokesman Phillip Thompson said Duniam was a “fierce servant” of the party and the Senate.
“I fully understand his reasonings, though,” Thompson told Sky News. “Missing anniversaries, missing birthdays, missing holidays, you know, being the shadow home affairs minister he’s always out and about on TV, travelling, always away from his family, and it takes a toll.”
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Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.