In his first full day as opposition leader, Angus Taylor visited the home of young couple in regional NSW to frame up his economic message.
"Owning a home has always been an essential part of the Australian ideal, of the Australian journey, of what young Australians do as they start a family," he told reporters in Goulburn.
"But it is getting too hard, young Australians are giving up hope."
Flanked by his deputy, Jane Hume, Mr Taylor vowed to fight a possible wind-back of the capital gains tax discount rumoured to be under consideration by the government.
Pushed on whether such a change would actually ease home prices and aid first-homebuyers, Mr Taylor said a less generous discount would weigh on housing supply.
"And we need more homes, not less, if we're going to have more affordability."
The newly-installed opposition leader declined to offer a timetable for firmer policy offerings but confirmed immigration would be another priority.
Mr Taylor ousted former party leader Sussan Ley on Friday, winning 34 votes to 17, ending the reign of the party's first female leader after nine months in the job.
Ms Ley announced her resignation from politics soon after being deposed, triggering an eventual by-election for the NSW seat of Farrer.
Political expert Zareh Ghazarian said the by-election posed a "potentially dangerous opening" for the Liberals.
"The test of leadership is often at the ballot box and this will be (Mr Taylor's) first test," he told AAP.
"The Liberal Party will have to combat the potential of One Nation and I think that's going to be very difficult."
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson issued a call out on social media for "community-minded locals" to throw their hat in the ring for the party.
Michelle Milthorpe, a Climate 200-backed independent candidate for the seat in the 2025 election, announced she would recontest Farrer.
Ms Ley's margin was reduced to 10.9 per cent in 2019 and 6.2 per cent in 2025 in contests against independents.
"The coalition has been consumed by its own internal contests at a time when people are crying out for leadership," Mrs Milthorpe said.
State independent MP Helen Dalton, a former Shooters and Fishers Party member, said she would consider running for the seat.
Mr Taylor conceded a crowded race and the exit of a popular local would make the by-election "challenging".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was dining out on the internal dysfunction inflicting his political rivals at the NSW Labor Country Conference on Saturday.
"It is extraordinary that they have had eight months of plotting in order to deliver the two people to the leadership positions who more than anyone else on their entire show were responsible for alienating the Liberals from the Australian voters," Mr Albanese said at the event in Orange.
As the Liberal Party looks to develop its policies, Dr Ghazarian said Mr Taylor should adopt former prime minister John Howard's approach of accommodating the conservatives and moderates within the party.
"He must have a pragmatic element, rather than being an ideological party," he said.
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