Apparently it wasn’t enough for the Coalition to lose catastrophically to Albo a couple of weeks ago at the election; now it’s ceased to exist altogether.
The Nationals have formally split with the Liberal party, breaking up the Coalition for the first time since the 1980s due to major policy differences.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud, said MPs had made the shock decision not to enter into a new coalition agreement with the Liberals in talks at Parliament House on Tuesday, after a breakdown in negotiations with the new opposition leader, Sussan Ley.
Littleproud nominated nuclear policy, a $20bn regional Australia future fund, forced break-up powers in the supermarket sector and minimum standards for communications services in the bush as the key sticking points in the decision.
The minor party wanted each policy locked in exchange for a formal agreement with the Liberals, but Ley has promised a wide-ranging policy review with consultation across the party. She ruled out “captain’s calls” after being elected leader.
Ley said the decision was “disappointing”, insisting she wanted to name a joint frontbench and then allow both parties to work on policy development separately. She confirmed the Nationals also demanded shadow ministers have the right to vote against opposition policy in parliament, a move which would be highly unusual.
As noted, this isn’t the first time the Coalition has fractured, with the last time having been 1987 when that “Joh for Canberra” silliness was going on. However, this time round, coming as it does just after they got comprehensively walloped at the election, looks a lot more ominous. I saw someone on Bluesky wondering what the fuss was about given that the Nats apparently did this in WA ages ago and have done OK since then, but that seems to miss the point to me: we’re not talking about the west, we’re talking about the whole country, and it’s not about how the Nationals will cope without the Liberals, it is very much the other way round. The Libs kind of need the Nats to make up the numbers for them, cos by themselves they almost never win federal elections without them. The Nats will never be serious contenders and I’m sure they know that, they’ll never get anywhere except in coalition… but I’m equally sure they know the Liberals will struggle without them. And I’m even more sure they’ll be back together sooner or later. But right now… OOF. What a day. I’ll bet Dutton’s glad he doesn’t have to deal with this…
