It was a long hard slog, but it's finally seeming like Peter Dutton will be crowned as leader of the Liberal party.
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After helping unseat former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, then getting set aside for Scott Morrison instead, it finally took an election loss so great that no one else wants to run the party. But he's almost there.
Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews said the Liberal Party is expected to elect the former defence minister as leader unopposed, with NSW MP Sussan Ley tipped to take up the deputy position.
Ms Andrews had been expected to take on the job as deputy but she, like Mr Dutton, is a Queensland MP.
"It was important the deputy came from a state other than Queensland and whilst that is personally disappointing for me ... it was untenable to have a leader and a deputy leader from Queensland," she told ABC News on Wednesday.
Ms Andrews also said the text messages sent to voters about an intercepted asylum seeker boat on election day were sent without her approval, as the then home affairs minister.
"I had no knowledge of the text messages. I didn't know that they were being even contemplated," she said.
"A lot of things were happening on election day. What the party chose to do is a party matter ... it wasn't something that was endorsed by me."
In the world of home affairs, interim minister Jim Chalmers said he has made "substantial progress" on returning the Murugappan family to their home since the Labor government was elected on Saturday.
"There are a series of steps that I would need to appropriately take in order to give effect to our long-held view that [the Murugappan] family must get home to Biloela," he said.
Once again, very different vibes between the two parties after the election.
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