When Opposition Leader Sussan Ley was asked last month how she would recover the Coalition’s reputation in multicultural communities that handed it a landslide election defeat, she had three things to say.

She was a new leader, with a new tone, and a new team.

This week put that on trial.

Sussan Ley and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.Credit: Matt Willis

Landing the right response to last weekend’s anti-immigration marches was a challenge for both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ley. Repeated surveys show Australians have concerns about immigration. But the rallies also featured a handful of violent outbursts, speeches from known neo-Nazis and chants of “send them back”. Extremism experts warn that far-right extremists want to hijack mainstream anti-woke talking points – such as on immigration – for their own ends, to capture media attention and push an ideology.

For Ley, it loomed as a test for how she would steer the opposition through one of Australia’s most divisive social debates in a post-Peter Dutton era.

If she was hoping to show migrant communities something new, there’s a way to go.

Ley is clearly a different leader. Where Dutton made captain’s calls, Ley is seeking consensus. Dutton’s office was closed to the media, Ley’s seeks to engage. Dutton shunned the political establishment, Ley made a point of swiftly addressing the National Press Club.

She’s also made some shifts in tone. At that Press Club address, for example, Ley opened with an Acknowledgment of Country – a departure from Dutton’s late election campaign tactic of diminishing Indigenous Welcome to........

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