Coalition alliance rethink as city, rural divide opens
Dominic Giannini |
The federal coalition’s political marriage could be up for a rethink as the party partners figure out how to bridge the divide between the regions and the cities.
The Liberals were decimated across metropolitan areas while the Nationals maintained most of their seats in the regions, outperforming their coalition partner for the second consecutive election.
Deputy Nationals Leader Perin Davey is set to lose her NSW Senate seat after a large swing against the coalition in the state and she was placed third on the joint Senate ticket behind two Liberals.
Her upper house seat is likely to be picked up by Labor after an eight per cent swing against the coalition.
“We held all incumbent seats while the Liberals lost seats,” Senator Davey told AAP on Wednesday.
“We need to go to the Liberals now to say we deserve to have the second Senate spot each election, as they do in Queensland.”
The first two coalition Senate candidates in NSW are essentially guaranteed their place, and the ranking of Nationals and Liberal candidates can impact the delicate coalition partyroom balance.
The balance has flow-on effects for cabinet spots and portfolios.
As well, the coalition’s energy policy is heading to a fork in the road, with Liberals wanting the dump it after blaming it for dragging on their inner city vote, and the Nationals saying it was popular in the regions.
“… we should review all of our policies,” Nationals MP Kevin Hogan told Sky News, while pointing to positive swings in regional seats where the proposed plants would have been built as his Nationals colleagues backed keeping the policy.
The coalition now holds only about one in 10 metropolitan seats while Labor is saturated in every capital city.
Such a devastating loss means the nuclear policy needed to be scrapped as it was overwhelmingly rejected by Australians at the election, Liberal senator Maria Kovacic said.
Liberal moderate Bridget Archer who lost her Tasmanian seat of Bass also criticised the nuclear policy.
There was a disconnect between what the opposition offered and Australians wanted, she said, adding the national campaign had missteps and there wasn’t a big enough focus on local issues.
Liberal sources say the Nationals driving the policy agenda popular in regional Australia was one of the reasons the Liberals were wiped out in metropolitan seats.
Labor insiders point to the nuclear policy as a major reason for the Liberals’ inner-city decimation, particularly the price tag associated with it and where budget cuts would come from.
A territorial dispute could also come into play with the Nationals emboldened by their electoral tally.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan suggested his party should run in more peri-urban seats given their electoral success at previous elections, after the Liberals bled MPs in Saturday’s poll.
Senator Davey said the Nationals should only run in more seats if there were decent candidates and enough party support to help them.
AAP
