Sussan Ley says name spelling change was due to ‘punk phase'
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has walked back claims that an interest in numerology was the reason she added extra 's' in her name, claiming her comment she made to a journalist in 2015 was a 'flippant remark' and not correct.
Ley told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday that the name change came during her 'punk phase' as a teenager, shooting down a long-running story that she had added the extra letter because of a belief it would make her life more exciting.
The Liberal leader has also conceded women were 'disappointed' with the opposition's policies at last month's election, promising the Coalition would 'modernise' and offer new ideas on housing, especially for young people, as well as childcare and aged care.
In a 2015 profile with the Australian newspaper, Ley was quoted as saying: 'I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality.
'I worked out that if you added an 's' I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would ever be boring. It's that simple … And once I'd added the 's' it was really hard to take it away.'
Asked about the quote on 3AW on Friday, Ley claimed it was a 'flippant remark' and numerology was 'actually not the reason'.
'It was something I did during my rebel teenage years and, you know, I went through a punk phase in those years and added the extra 's'. People have been fascinated by the numerology angle, but it's actually not correct,' Ley said.
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It is not the first time Ley has walked back the 2015 claim, seeking to explain her earlier quote in several media interviews when asked in recent years. In mid-May, shortly after being elected Liberal leader, Ley told Kyle and Jackie O's Kiis FM program that the original quote was 'an offhand remark to a journalist, which sort of took off'.
'The real reason is I was rather rebellious in my youth. That's been covered in my punk rock past, and so I just added the extra 's' and annoyed my family members. At that time, by the way, I certainly didn't think I would end up being leader of the opposition or even a politician,' she said.
In the 3AW interview, Ley also said the Liberals 'we must listen, we must change, we must develop a fresh approach'.
'That listening is very important in what we do next. We will modernise. We will rebuild,' she said.
The Coalition will be left with just 43 seats in the House of Representatives, and the Labor government holding a large majority with 94 seats.
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'We've got to have a party that respects modern Australia, reflects modern Australia, and represents modern Australia. And we've got to meet modern Australia communities, the people who listen to your program, where they are,' Ley said.
'I stood on the pre-poll in the last fortnight [of the election] all around the country, including Melbourne, and I talked to women and I saw the look of disappointment on many of their faces, and I asked them what they were thinking, and they didn't feel that we had a policy offering that was relevant to them.'
Ley was this week critical of former Liberal president Alan Stockdale, who reportedly claimed women had become 'so assertive' that the party might need to consider extra support for men.
The Liberal leader admitted that housing was a key issue the opposition had to work on, especially to win the votes of younger Australians. She also nominated childcare, aged care and policies on students as priority issues.
'They [young people] are worried about work. Of course, they're worried about studying, but they're worried about housing too, and if we can't find a pathway, or articulate a pathway into housing for young people, then they're not going to support our political party,' she said.
'We had some policies at the last election. We'll review those. I'm always very frustrated by what state governments are not doing when it comes to supporting young people in housing. But I'm not saying that it's only in their court. There are things the federal government can do as well.'
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