Nationals hold ‘good faith’ talks with Libs to reunite
National leader David Littleproud faces growing pressure within his party to reunite with the Liberals after surviving an attempt to challenge his leadership.
Mr Littleproud, who vowed that no one from the National Party could serve in the shadow cabinet chaired by Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, is being urged to reassemble the coalition almost two weeks after it broke up.
The two met on Monday evening ahead of parliament’s official return this year for the first formal talks to discuss a potential compromise.
Nationals vice president Kevin Hogan described the discussion as “really good, civil, collaborative and friendly.”
“There is a will in our chamber, in the National Party and of course in the Liberal party chamber, that we want to form a coalition again at some time in the future,” he told the ABC’s 7.30.
“We have some issues to deal with and we are trying in good faith to resolve them right now.”
Mr Hogan said it was unlikely the two parties would face off together in the first Question Time of the year.
Mr Littleproud blamed Ms Ley for the split after accepting the resignations of three National Senators who breached shadow cabinet solidarity by voting against the agreed view on hate crime laws.
Mr Hogan said the main sticking point remained and that there had been no agreement on whether the three senators who resigned would be reinstated.
He said the issue of shadow cabinet solidarity had been fully discussed and the Liberals had made suggestions.
“We’ll be bringing some of these ideas to our party room as well, so we can agree on some guardrails for how they want it to work in the future,” Mr. Hogan said.
Queensland reserve player Colin Boyce failed to secure the support needed to formally vote to dissolve the National leadership at a party room meeting earlier that day.
Mr Boyce said the party needed to re-unite to reform the coalition, with a majority of MPs backing a separate motion tabled by Victorian MP Darren Chester to restore the political alliance.
The Opposition leader is likely to face a challenge to Angus Taylor’s leadership of the Liberals later this fortnight.
Polls showed that support for One Nation had surpassed coalition support, causing alarm from both Nationals and the Liberals.
Ms Ley had previously given the Nationals a week to rejoin.
The Liberals planned to expand the shadow cabinet if a deal was not reached by February 9, taking over front-line roles held by the National Party.
The National Party chamber will hold a second meeting before the chambers meet at noon AEDT on Tuesday.
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