More than a few times throughout his political career, Angus Taylor has told the story of his grandfather, William Hudson. A civil engineer, Hudson remains a “pervasive” role model for Australia’s new opposition leader.

Hudson was favourite to be appointed commissioner of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority in the late 1940s. When the federal cabinet demanded three nominations for the job leading the massive project, the minister for works presented Ben Chifley with a slip of paper which read “Hudson, Hudson, Hudson”.

Taylor recalls how his grandfather overcame significant political resistance to bring thousands of refugees from war-shattered Europe to Australia. Arriving from at least 30 countries, the engineers and labourers “changed the face” of the country, Taylor says, living in multi-ethnic camps and working as hard as they could.

But, hours after rolling Sussan Ley to take the Liberal leadership on Friday, Taylor appeared to forget the lesson of William Hudson’s legacy.

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Signalling a further rightward shift on migration, Taylor risks the wrong lesson from the Coalition’s haemorrhaging of votes to One Nation, and fuelling an already damaging debate eating away at federal politics.

Is this what we should expect from the newly reshaped Liberal party, under Taylor and his deputy, Victorian moderate Jane Hume?

In wide-ranging comments about his outlook and values, the 58-year-old conceded the party faced an existential crisis,........

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