Nationals split from Liberals in end to Federal Coalition

The Nationals have walked away from their Liberal Party allies in a historic rupture of the Coalition, after a breakdown in discussions over policy positions.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud led his party room out the door in a “principled decision” after he failed to secure guarantees from Liberal Leader Sussan Ley about nuclear power, forced break-up powers in the supermarket sector, a $20bn regional future fund, and minimum regional and rural mobile coverage standards.

In a major test of her new leadership, Ms Ley was steadfast in requesting a “nothing adopted and nothing abandoned” approach, and asked the Nationals to allow time for all policies to be reviewed before coalition positions were made.

She proposed standing up a joint coalition shadow ministry while that occurred, but the Nationals weren’t happy with the absence of guarantees. After a party room meeting on Tuesday morning, the Nationals gave Ms Ley 30 minutes notice of their decision before it was publicly announced.

It marks the fourth split in the history of the coalition, and the first since 1987, which Ms Ley said was “disappointing” but not permanent.

Mr Littleproud said he hoped the parties could reunite before the next election, and framed the split as a trial separation rather than a divorce, that would allow the depleted Liberal Party time and space to rebuild after its worst electoral result in history.

“They are going on a journey of rediscovery, and this will provide them the opportunity to do that without the spectre of the National Party imposing their will,” Mr Littleproud said of the Liberal Party.

“But (we’ll be) setting clear boundaries, and parameters about what’s important to us, about what we achieved as a Coalition in the last three years. Building on that. Not having to look back and to fight for things, but to actually focus on what’s important.”

Some Liberals are opting to frame the split as a positive, one that allows the Party the chance to do “the hard, humble work we must do”, as Victorian MP Zoe McKenzie said.

Ms Ley said the negotiations collapsed in-part because the Nationals could not commit to respecting shadow cabinet solidarity, which the party wanted the right to breach ostensibly over net zero.

“I wasn’t assured of that (solidarity) with issues that may divide both members of their party room and members of our party room in the future,” she said.

Mr Littleproud denied his party had made such a request.

There is also said to be some residual anger within the National Party room over the defection of NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who swapped parties following the election to run on a leadership ballot with Angus Taylor.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie denied Senator Price’s defection had anything to do with the decision, saying: “This isn’t about soured views or otherwise.”

The split means the Liberal Party will have 28 seats in the House of Representatives to the Nationals’ 15. As the larger party, the Liberals will remain the official Opposition and Ms Ley will now move to appoint a shadow cabinet without the Nationals.

But with both Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud stressing their respective doors remained open and hoped for the coalition to be returned down the track, that does cast some doubt over whether some of the shadow ministry positions Ms Ley will fill will just be stopgaps.

In the last term of parliament, the Nationals were overrepresented with seven cabinet positions.

Ms Ley said if the coalition were to reform, “those discussions will be had as and when needed”.

Nationals MP Michael McCormack, a former party leader and deputy prime minister, says his colleagues aren’t in Canberra for positions.

“It’s not about positions, it’s not about power, it’s actually about representing people in regional areas,” he said.

“…And that’s why we’ve won every lower house seat for six elections in a row under four different leaders.”

Senior party elders like former prime minister John Howard have called for a swift reunion, warning the longer they remain split the harder it will be to reconcile - and return to government.

But former Liberal MP Jason Falinski, who lost his seat of Mackellar to teal independent Sophie Scamps in 2022, said it was in the Party’s best interests to take a break.

“I just don’t think it’s been a good deal for the Liberal Party for a number of decades now,” Mr Falinski told Sky News Australia ahead of the Nationals’ announcement.

“One of the structural weaknesses of the coalition is that the leader of the Liberal Party is the leader of the Coalition, and the Liberal Party doesn’t have anyone standing up for it, and we saw the results at the last election.

“In the last three elections, we have seen the Liberal Party reduced to nothing in the cities. Now, you can’t win government unless you’re winning seats in the cities.

“I think the Liberal Party should just say, look, it’s not working for us anymore. Perhaps we should all take a break from each other and reconsider our positions.”

Mathematically, it seems highly improbable either the Liberal or National Party would be able to form Government in either party’s own right if no future coalition agreement was made.

Asked if she believed the Liberals could govern without the Nationals, Ms Ley - who described herself as a coalitionist - said “we are always strong when we work together”.

“In 1996 the Liberals could have governed without the Nationals,” she said.

“And John Howard took a strong, comprehensive approach that the coalition mattered in the long term, more than one term in government where the Liberals effectively could have governed without financial. That is exactly the approach that I will take.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers labelled Tuesday’s decision a “nuclear meltdown”.

“The Coalition now is nothing more than a smoking ruin… It’s hard to see how Australians can take them seriously when they don’t even take each other seriously,” he said.

“They tried to divide the Australian community in the election campaign, and they ended up dividing themselves.

“And the consequence of that is the Liberal Party is now barely bigger than the crossbench in Parliament.”