It is almost impossible to overstate the challenge facing Angus Taylor just days into the job as opposition leader.

Announcing a new frontbench to fight Labor on Tuesday afternoon, his remade shadow ministry lineup is really about fighting for the life of the Liberal party.

Deemed increasingly irrelevant by voters, only the most diehard Liberals could seriously expect the party to be competitive in just over two years’ time. That may be why Taylor named two true diehards to key economic portfolios: the pugnacious Tim Wilson as shadow treasurer and the uncompromising Claire Chandler in finance.

Taylor also rewarded supporters – not least Andrew Hastie with industry and sovereign capability; Jonno Duniam with home affairs and immigration; and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in skills and training. He elevated strong performers, including James Paterson to defence and Aaron Violi to science, technology and digital economy. Reflecting the massive split still yet to be papered over inside the party, he even kept on some of Sussan Ley’s backers, including Ted O’Brien, who is moving to foreign affairs.

He smoothed things out with the Nationals, restoring frontbenchers like Bridget McKenzie and Ross Cadell from the sin bin, after Ley’s blowup with their leader, David Littleproud, signalled the beginning of the end for her leadership.

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But, appearing alongside his deputy leader, Jane Hume, Taylor flagged he won’t move quickly to announce new policies, falling back on motherhood statements and principles on key issues including tax reform and immigration.

While Labor considers changes to the capital gains discount to improve intergenerational fairness across the red hot property market, Wilson dismissed the possible budget measure as a new “housing tax”. That position may leave the Liberals disconnected with younger voters, one constituency they badly need to win back as the party’s own membership base ages.

On immigration, Taylor stressed only that any new policy would have to “protect Australia’s way of life” and bring down overseas arrivals. He was asked about an appalling claim by the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, this week that she couldn’t find a “good Muslim” in Australia, proving her party is well and truly calling the shots as it surges in the polls.

Apart from the strange emergence this week of a hardline immigration policy supposedly drafted under Ley – though not known to either her immigration spokesperson, Paul Scarr, or Duniam in home affairs – there isn’t much detail.

Monday’s revelations that a group of Australian women and children were preparing to return home from Syria had to serve as the detail.

Despite the horrible reality facing the group, the story is a gift to the Coalition. Taylor has whacked Labor again over the possibility they could be allowed to return to Australia, insisting the 34 wives, widows and children of dead or jailed Islamic State fighters must be blocked at every turn.

He forgets that the Morrison government repatriated a group of Australian children from Syria in 2019 and Labor brought home a group of women and 13 children to Sydney in 2022.

The current group are Australian citizens, and the Coalition knows Labor can’t block them from legally returning to the country, even if it does not assist them in any way.

The first real test for Taylor and his new frontbench will be the return of parliament in a couple of weeks’ time. Labor can’t wait.

If the Liberals are to survive, let alone bring the fight to Labor and its 94 seats, there is hard graft to be done. Even Taylor may not have grappled with just how big his challenge is.

Tom McIlroy is Guardian Australia’s political editor