Nationals given deadline to save coalition after split
Dominic Giannini |
Liberal leader Sussan Ley has given the Nationals a week to reconcile with the coalition before she crosses the Rubicon by replacing their leadership team.
Ms Ley has appointed acting spokespeople in portfolios previously held by Nationals MPs in shadow cabinet, following the junior coalition partner walking away from the political marriage.
Senior Liberals have been given acting roles to cover the Nationals’ portfolio areas as the party is now the sole official opposition after the split.
The coalition splits its cabinet and ministry on a proportional basis between Liberals and Nationals.
The acting arrangements will be in place until the start of the second parliamentary sitting week in February.
Ms Ley said she would then appoint six parliamentarians to the shadow cabinet and two in the outer shadow ministry “on an ongoing basis”.
Foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash takes on the trade portfolio, health spokeswoman Anne Ruston picks up agriculture, energy spokesman Dan Tehan adds resources, and defence spokesman Angus Taylor has been given veterans’ affairs.
Deputy Liberal leader and shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien has taken on the assistant treasurer portfolio, while environment spokeswoman Angie Bell adds water and emergency management.
Nationals leader David Littleproud walked away from the coalition when Ms Ley accepted the resignations of three Nationals senators from shadow cabinet after they voted against hate speech laws.
Shadow cabinet members are required to vote in line with the agreed coalition position or resign.
Mr Littleproud gave Ms Ley an ultimatum that all Nationals in the shadow ministry would tender their resignations if she sacked the three rebels, saying the decision was a collective party room one.
She accepted the dissenting trio’s resignations, resulting in the walkout.
Nationals in the lower house abstained on the vote as they sought to move amendments in the Senate, which if accepted, would have resulted in them supporting the hate speech legislation.
The Liberal leader has reached out for talks to reconcile the coalition.
Mr Littleproud has turned down a meeting at least until after a party room meeting on Monday, when he faces his own leadership challenge from rogue backbencher Colin Boyce which is not expected to succeed.
“Following Monday’s parliamentary meeting of The Nationals, I will attempt to meet with whoever is elected as their leader,” Ms Ley said.
It comes amid internal turmoil in the Liberal Party as Mr Taylor and West Australian MP Andrew Hastie jostle to determine which of them will challenge Ms Ley’s leadership on behalf of their conservative faction.
The duo met befor a memorial service for late-Liberal MP Katie Allen to reach a position on who would be the conservative candidate, with a widely-held view that a united right faction was needed to topple the first female Liberal leader.
The talks were brokered by Liberal senators James Paterson and Jonno Duniam, both of whom serve in the Liberal leadership team and shadow cabinet.
The talks ended in a stalemate, making the prospect of a spill motion against the leader in the first sitting week in February unlikely.
However, even if a consensus candidate was found, the right would still need to peel off a handful of votes from moderates or MPs who voted for Ms Ley in the original ballot after May’s election to topple the leader.
Ms Ley beat Mr Taylor in the post-election leadership ballot 29-25.
However, three of Ms Ley’s supporters and one of Mr Taylor’s are no longer in parliament.
Mr Taylor’s supporters say he is best placed to appeal to more moderate MPs compared to the more hardcore brand of conservative politics Mr Hastie represents.
The West Australian’s backers say he has more support in the right faction and generational change is needed.
AAP
