Senator Bridget McKenzie, Nationals Leader David Littleproud and Deputy Leader Kevin Hogan. Photo: David Littleproud Instagram.
The Liberal and National parties have ended the Coalition, deciding to split over policy positions in the wake of their thumping defeat at the 3 May federal election.
Nationals leader David Littleproud announced the divorce just before midday Tuesday (20 May), saying the parties would not be reentering into an agreement.
He said that while discussions with Liberal leader Sussan Ley were respectful, she needed to rebuild her party.
“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,” he said.
But those discussions broke down over the Nationals’ demand for the Coalition to retain nuclear energy, regional infrastructure funding and supermarket divestiture policies as part of the Coalition agreement.
Ms Ley didn’t want to include any policy positions as part of the agreement, but instead leave everything open for discussion.
“After the discussions that both Sussan Ley and I have had over the ensuing period, our party room has got to a position where we will not be reentering a Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party after this election,” Mr Littleproud said.
“We have got to a position that the National Party will sit alone on a principled basis.
“On the basis of looking forward, not having to look back and to try and actually regain important policy pieces that change the lives of the people we represent.
“We have had a coalition of over 80 years, and I suspect we will have one in the future. It has been broken before.
“What this is about is taking a deep breath and saying to the Australian people, this is time apart for us to be better, to focus on them.
“This is a healthy part of our democracy which we should be proud of … We look forward to what else we can do as a party, and as part of an Opposition now that can shape the lives of regional Australians for the better.”
The Nationals leader said the split was not over frontbench positions in the depleted Opposition, but rather over policy.
He noted, however, that the Nationals’ vote held up better than the Liberals’ at the election, in which Labor romped into a second term with more than 90 seats.
“I gave her [Ms Ley] the commitment that I’ll work with her every day to help to try to rebuild the relationship to the point we can reenter a Coalition before the next election,” Mr Littleproud said.
“But at this juncture, we’re making a principled position about not what we’re prepared to give up on, but to build on what we achieved and to move forward.”
Senior Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie suggested the Liberal Party was not willing to budge on policy issues important to the Nationals.
“A reasonable request was put to a trusted partner and it was refused,” she said.
“Policies that we had fought for, that only a few weeks ago, we fought an election on.”
The Nationals’ deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, noted that a number of Nationals MPs and Senators will lose their positions by leaving the Coalition.
But he flagged a time when both parties will reform a Coalition once more.
“We are always best as a country with a strong Coalition,” he said.
“I hope, my wish in the future, is that it is going to happen again sooner rather than later.
“But we needed to make, for us, a principled stand on things today that we could not move on.”
Ms Ley is yet to comment publicly on the Coalition split.
