Nationals confident Coalition will unite by election
The National Party is confident they will rejoin the Coalition well before the election, but members say elections will not be held on arbitrary dates.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley told National Party leader David Littleproud earlier this week that a new Coalition could reform within days, provided the three former National shadow ministers on the bench spend six months sinning on the front bench.
Nationals members held a party room meeting on Wednesday to determine their response, but Mr Littleproud remained short on detail when pressed by reporters.
“There is no decision today,” he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
“It is my intention that a coalition will be formed at some point in the future, well before the elections.”
Mr Littleproud noted that the joint party room process was not followed when contentious hate speech bills were debated, resulting in senators Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald taking the floor.
“We did nothing wrong, we got stuck in the processes, the process collapsed and we were not fortunate,” he said.
“We have decided that we cannot support a bill that would take away the freedom of expression of every Australian.”
He declined to say whether he would meet Ley on Thursday for further discussions and has repeatedly criticized media reports, saying the Nationals have been vilified over the past two weeks.
The National Party must reform the Coalition by Monday before Ms Ley makes an all-Liberal shadow cabinet permanent.
Nationals MP Kevin Hogan said the party could oppose Ms Ley’s proposal but “we don’t want an arbitrary deadline that will cut that off”.
Senator McKenzie denied that this was the reason the coalition had not yet come together.
“We are all coalitionists in the National Party and it is up to our two leaders to bring that relationship together,” he told the Today Show.
Mr Littleproud refused to engage in “hypotheses” about a three-way Coalition with One Nation, as Pauline Hanson, leader of the far-right party, suggested on Sky News on Wednesday night.
“I would work with them to get supplies to them,” Senator Hanson said.
“Would I join the rabble they’re in right now? Wherever in the world, but I have strong policies that we need.”
Recent polls have shown public support for One Nation overtaking the Coalition for the first time.
The Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll, published on Sunday, showed support for One Nation had risen to 26 per cent, well above the old Coalition’s preliminary vote rate of 19 per cent.
