Hackers have been blamed for explicit images posted to the federal opposition’s social media accounts just hours after Sussan Ley said the Liberal Party must be “proudly for women”.

Pictures of scantily-clad women appeared as “story” posts pushed out on the Liberal Party of Australia’s Facebook and Instagram accounts late on Wednesday.

They were up for a few minutes — enough time for followers to take screenshots — before they were pulled down.

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“Overnight, the social media account of a contractor used by the party was hacked, leading to the posting of unauthorised material on the Liberal Party’s Meta accounts at around midnight,” the party said in a statement.

“All material was removed within 10 minutes of it being posted and the matter was urgently raised with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and with Meta overnight

“We apologise for any offence caused.”

It came after opposition leader used her first address to the National Press Club to acknowledge the devastating federal election loss on May 3.

“We didn’t just lose. We got smashed. Totally smashed,” Ley said.

“What we as the Liberal Party presented to the Australian people was comprehensively rejected.

“The scale of that defeat — its size and significance — is not lost on me, nor on any one of my parliamentary team sitting here today.”

Ley, the party’s first woman to be appointed leader, also described herself as a “zealot” about increasing women’s representation in the party.

“We must be a Liberal Party that is proudly for women and made up of women,” she said.

“Our party must preselect more women in winnable seats so that we see more Liberal women in Federal Parliament.”

She said two reviews are underway. The first is a “root and branch review of the election result” and the other focused on a “deeper look at the existential issues we face”.