Nationals will not re-enter Coalition agreement

The Nationals will split from the Liberal Party after days of negotiations between the two sides failed to result in a coalition agreement, breaking with a century-long tradition.

Nationals leader David Littleproud made the announcement at Parliament House on Tuesday, describing it as one of the “hardest political decisions of his life”.

He told reporters the Nationals would continue to work constructively with the Liberal Party but they would not re-enter into a formal coalition agreement at this stage.

“The National Party will sit alone on a principle basis,” Mr Littleproud said.

“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.”

Emboldened by an election result that saw the minor party retain nearly all of its lower house seats while the Liberal Party went backwards, Nationals MPs had previously flagged that the arrangement was up for discussion.

Mr Littleproud travelled to Albury last week to meet with newly elected Liberal leader Sussan Ley, who was at home to be with her dying mother.

The sticking points for the minor party were the continuation of a nuclear power policy, the Regional Australia Future Fund, and the desire for divestiture powers for supermarkets.

One of the Coalition’s key policies going into the election was a plan to build nuclear power reactors on seven sites around the country to supplement the energy transition.

But after the devastating May 3 election loss, which saw the Coalition reduced to just over 40 seats in the House of Representatives, Liberals’ views on the policy were mixed.

Some wanted the nuclear power policy ditched, others wanted it retained but with less taxpayer money involved, and some wanted to double down.

National leader hopeful a new agreement can be reached in future

Mr Littleproud said he was hopeful the two parties would be able to come to a new agreement before the next federal election in three years, but added that the party would contest the election alone if that didn’t happen. 

“I had a respectful conversation with Sussan Ley this morning, sat down, made it very clear that we remain committed to having the door open, respecting the position that Sussan has been put in — that she is a leader that needs to rebuild the Liberal Party,” he said.

“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.

“I gave her the commitment that I’ll work with her every day to help to try to rebuild the relationship to the point we can re-enter a coalition before the next election.”

Neither the Liberals or Nationals could realistically form government without the support of the other, according to ABC election analyst Antony Green.

It was unclear whether the Liberal candidates would run against Nationals at the next election, former party leader Michael McCormack said on Tuesday, telling reporters “a week is a long time in politics, three years is an eternity”.

“We may well get back into a coalition arrangement before the next election, I do hope so,” he said. 

By abandoning a coalition, National politicians will also forfeit their titles and access to the opposition cabinet.

“A lot of our members of our party room are going to lose positions and titles out of this, and money, and that wasn’t even a focus of the discussion for us,” deputy Nationals Leader Kevin Hogan said.

“We’ve all broken up in a relationship that’s been important to us, and very often, more often than not, you get back together and join back together with clearer clarity and focus on what the relationship was about.”

The coalition agreement has been abandoned multiple times over the previous century, with the parties eventually joining back together.

The last split was in 1987 after a fight between the two parties in Queensland.