Who are James Paterson and Alex Hawke, the kingmakers in the Liberal leadership stoush?

Behind every leadership battle are the kingmakers who count the numbers and muster support for their preferred candidate.

In the current Liberal leadership bout, it’s James Paterson in Angus Taylor’s corner and Alex Hawke still backing Sussan Ley.

Both were the numbers people for the contenders when they first faced off against each other last May as well.

But, as several Liberal sources note ruefully, when the party room is just 51-strong, it’s not hard to do the numbers – flipping only a few key people in the middle is sufficient.

Senator Paterson is part of the millennial generation of politicians and has made his mark as one of the Coalition’s best communicators.

The 38-year-old honed these skills at libertarian think tank the Institute of Public Affairs before entering politics in 2016.

He spent most of the past three years as the shadow Home Affairs minister.

While the Coalition was in government, he came to prominence along with Andrew Hastie as part of a group of MPs known as the Wolverines, who warned about the rise of China and its coercive behaviour.

Senator Paterson comes from the party’s right flank.

However, he’s regarded as having behaved honourably in supporting Ms Ley through most of last year, seeing unity as the best thing for the party.

That was until he took part in a meeting between Mr Taylor and Mr Hastie, along with other conservatives, in Melbourne the other week. The next day, Mr Hastie withdrew from contention to be the right’s leadership candidate.

Mr Hawke is among the longest-serving MPs in the Liberal party room, having been elected aged 30 in 2007.

He’s no stranger to internal wheeling and dealing, first as a member of the Young Liberals and then as a staffer and politician.

As part of the party’s small centre-right grouping, he was a key figure in Scott Morrison’s ultimate victory when Peter Dutton took on Malcolm Turnbull in 2018 and again emerged as a powerbroker for Ms Ley last year.

But unlike Senator Paterson, he doesn’t have much of a public presence — with the exception of when, as immigration minister, he cancelled the visa of tennis star Novak Djokovic days before the Australian Open during the pandemic.