Matt Canavan may have jumped the gun with his challenge for the leadership of the Nationals. David Littleproud’s leadership must surely be on even thinner ice after his embarrassing show of tantrum and subsequent backflip following the election. Having first made the shock announcement that the Nationals would tear up the 80-year-old coalition agreement, just days later, Littleproud is having second thoughts.
Nationals leader David Littleproud says he can still trust Sussan Ley despite public ructions over the now-paused split between the Liberal and National parties.
Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Mr Littleproud said the opposition leader’s decision to hold off on unveiling the Liberal frontbench and reconvene her party room was a sign the former coalition partners could work cooperatively together.
It sounds very much as if harder heads all round have told the coalition leaders, Littleproud in particular, to stop with the childish squabbling and concentrate on presenting a unified front to rebuild over the next term.
Former coalition PM Tony Abbott warned them that a divided coalition house was headed for “permanent opposition”. The coalition, he reminded them, “wins together and loses separately”. Instead of a strong opposition, the split would create “two opposition parties that are fighting each other as much as they’re fighting a bad government”.
‘Pull your heads in and get your act together,’ was the blunt message.
Nationals’ elder statesman, former leader Barnaby Joyce, likewise warned Littleproud to get off his high horse. “We have a job, and that is to be an effective opposition and hold the government to account,” Joyce reminded his colleagues.
It looks like they got the message.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has confirmed a morning meeting with Sussan Ley, during which the pair agreed to delay announcing their respective frontbench line-ups in a bid to revive Coalition talks.
As part of the meeting, Ms Ley agreed to reconvene the Liberal party room to consider the Nationals’ four core policy demands – support for nuclear energy, a new off-budget regional fund, supermarket divestiture powers, and improved regional telecommunications.
Mr Littleproud made clear the Nationals would not rejoin the coalition unless all four demands were met.
The big question is why both leaders were so willing to trash the coalition agreement, virtually handing parliament entirely over to Anthony Albanese over what really amounts to the normal argy-bargy of sorting out policy.
Later, Mr Littleproud was repeatedly pressed as to why he had ditched talks for a new coalition deal when negotiations had again been received. In response, the Nationals leader laid blame at the timeline proposed by Sussan Ley.
“The timeline that they were talking about was months away. It was a review of all policies,” he said.
OK, and? Root and branch policy evaluation is clearly going to be necessary in the wake of such a bruising defeat. What’s the hurry, then? Especially for the Nationals, who were effectively consigning themselves to minor party status as well as locking themselves out of any shadow cabinet positions.
Some Liberals privately questioned whether opposition to such policies were really worth breaking up the Coalition.
“We could easily convene Liberal party room… and thrash those issues out,” one senior Liberal MP said.
Mr Littleproud invited Nationals up to Canberra on Thursday who he intended to announce as the spokespeople for portfolios.
However, the Australian understands that those who Mr Littleproud had decided not to give any kind of portfolio to were not informed about the meeting or that any kind of announcement would be made on Thursday.
Which may or may not be a wise move when your leadership hangs on not pissing off at least 11 people.
