Coalition split as Nationals leave Liberals; David Littleproud blames Sussan Ley for rift
Updated ,first published
National leader David Littleproud said the Coalition deal was over, setting off a divide that could last until the next election as Liberal MPs weigh the damage to Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and mull a leadership change.
Littleproud accused Opposition Leader Sussan Ley of forcing his hand at a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday morning, where he announced his party’s decision to blast the Coalition by leaving the joint frontbench with 10 other Nationals MPs. Ley and Littleproud have had a strained relationship for years.
The National leader claimed on Tuesday that the Coalition should not have accepted the resignations of three National senators who broke the shadow cabinet convention by voting against Labour’s stance on supporting hate crime laws, so Ley’s actions led to the historic rupture.
“He has forced the coalition into an untenable situation,” Littleproud said, adding that “we are sitting on our own.”
“It happened. I spoke to Sussan Ley half an hour ago.
“We made it very clear that there would be a consequence and that if Sussan accepted these resignations, that consequence would be that the Coalition would become untenable and would be forced into a position where it would not be able to continue. She was aware of this.”
“We cannot be part of the shadow ministry under Sussan Ley.”
Ley had asked Littleproud not to talk publicly about politics on Thursday because it was a day of mourning for the Bondi massacre.
While speaking, Littleproud made a brief statement and said: “As we mourn the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack today, our focus should be on Jewish Australians, indeed all Australians.
“This is a national day of mourning and as leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party, my responsibility is to grieving Australians.”
It is the second time coalition parties have split since the last election, after breaking up for eight days in May last year.
The next steps in the political saga are unclear, but both moderate and conservative Liberals, while nasty towards Littleproud, acknowledge that the situation could hasten Ley’s demise as leader.
There is no appetite among Ley’s critics to press for a special session before parliament meets in February, so the leadership fight could take place as early as next month at the earliest.
“His replacement seems inevitable, but the timetable is not clear,” said a right-wing MP.
Leadership rival Angus Taylor returns from a European holiday as planned this week. He has been in contact with colleagues to consider whether the time is right for a strike, but one of his supporters said it could create even more chaos if the Coalition splits in quick succession followed by a Liberal leadership fight.
Ley, meanwhile, will need to respond to Littleproud’s statement that the Coalition has split and begin making arrangements for a new Liberal-only opposition. Some Liberals, particularly moderates, hope the party can be revived without its conservative junior partners, but with Ley’s poor poll numbers the opposition’s chances remain slim.
The gist of Littleproud’s claim is that the Coalition’s internal decision-making on Labour’s hate crime laws, which make visa cancellations easier and ban hate groups, is flawed.
Ley and senior Liberals claim the shadow cabinet, which includes senior citizens, agreed on Sunday to support Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s watered-down bill if the Coalition accepts his changes.
Over the next two days, Coalition shadow ministers carried out the will of the shadow cabinet and extracted a series of concessions from Labour.
But on Monday and Tuesday only the National Party hall held intensive meetings to discuss the bill, with right-wing backbencher Matt Canavan raising the issues. After several of these meetings, the junior partner of the coalition made demands for changes, some of which were not accepted by the government. Canavan believed that sweeping new powers banning hate groups targeting neo-Nazi organizations and radical Islamist groups such as Hizb ut Tahrir could be used to crack down on mainstream political and religious groups, a view shared by the Greens.
Littleproud argued on Thursday that the final bill, which included amendments made on Monday and Tuesday and other minor amendments, should go back to another shadow cabinet meeting or joint party room meeting; Neither of these happened.
The Liberals believed that there was no need for another joint meeting, and also no need for time, given how many National meetings had been held and how rushed Labor’s legislative process had become.
“I have never been in a cabinet or a shadow cabinet where the final decision was made on a bill that was not even drafted yet, not yet introduced and not yet passed through a common party room. With all due respect, I understand the terms that were presented, but the process was important,” Littleproud said on Thursday.
Senior Liberals, including those on the right, are furious with Littleproud because shadow ministers Jonno Duniam, Paul Scarr and Michaelia Cash only briefed National meetings to address concerns. These MPs believed they were doing this.
But Littleproud said the party chamber, which was frequently pushed into its positions by Canavan, a leadership threat to Littleproud, was still working out its processes until late Tuesday, when the Senate began voting.
He said MPs therefore felt obliged to vote against the legislation, despite the shadow cabinet agreeing in principle to support the bill with amendments on Sunday.
Littleproud said the three senators submitted their resignations out of respect for the shadow cabinet meeting. But he argued Ley should not accept these and instead acknowledge the unique circumstances caused by Labour’s flawed emergency process.
“If we had had some leadership courage and acknowledged that, then we could have prevented all of this,” he said. “I made it clear to our coalition partners on Sunday that my party chamber had made the decision that we could only support the immigration elements of this bill.
“We acted in good faith to get to this position but we cannot be forced to vote for a position. “The National Party is our dominant party and Sussan Ley cannot force us to vote one way or another and we have acted respectfully where we have not breached any process, any procedure of the Coalition.
“This entire process was not Sussan Ley’s fault. Anthony Albanese has revealed what brought him into this process, but the process was mishandled by Sussan Ley and there was an outcry yesterday to not accept these three resignations. “He was aware of the consequences if he did this… and he made that decision anyway.
“This is not what we wanted.”
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Paul Sakkal is the chief political correspondent. It has previously covered Victorian politics and won the Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect with: excitement or email.
