Nationals Leader David Littleproud comes clean on election shock, Coalition split
David Littleproud has lifted the lid on the LNP’s election defeat saying he and Peter Dutton “let the party down” while giving insight to his shock standoff with Sussan Ley.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud has peeled back the curtain on the dramatic Coalition split following its federal election defeat, conceding both he and Peter Dutton had let the party down.
Mr Littleproud, speaking at the annual LNP convention, said he owed members an explanation for the extraordinary week-long standoff with Liberal Leader Sussan Ley, describing it as amicable but necessary to preserve Nationals’ core priorities.
“There’s plenty of people that think they know what happened, think they know what happened in terms of negotiations that Sussan Ley and I had,” he said.
“Convention of the coalition has always been that after a campaign, the policies that we took to that election remain and that they are taken out by exception.
“Sussan wanted to take that away, and I respected that and tried to work with it, but there were four key policy areas that were hard for and so important to the people that National Party members and senators.”
The Nationals bargained for four policy platforms: maintaining a pro-nuclear energy policy, pushing for divestiture powers to prevent monopoly supermarket chains from quashing competition, a $20bn Australian Future Fund that pays for regional infrastructure and increasing regional and rural broadband services.
Mr Littleproud told the convention he had pushed for the “foundational” policies so that National members could “look them in the eye walk the streets of Barcaldine or Biloela”.
“While we’ve stood for our principles and days, and I thank the Liberal Party for accepting those conditions,” he said.
Mr Littleproud said the election result was “humbling” for himself and Mr Dutton.
“We let you down,” he said.
“We didn’t get the result that we wanted, we’ve got to be honest, we were towelled.”
Mr Littleproud stressed productivity needed to improve across the nation to compensate for a growing NDIS bill set to reach $100bn.
“The election was devastating, but let me make it clear, we’ve got to accept they couldn’t trust us to put a vote next to ours, but they held their nose and voted for Anthony Albanese -not because they’re in love with him, because we didn’t do a good enough job in selling that message.”
Liberal Deputy Leader Ted O’Brien went on to deliver a scathing review of the recent Productivity Round Table, accusing the Albanese government of plotting to reset taxation and superannuation policy with big banks and unions.
Mr O’Brien used his 20 minute address to criticise the government’s “out of control” spending, debt forecasts, and lack of financial modelling on energy policy, including one moment when he referred Anthony Albanese’s pet dog “Toto” as the “brains of the operation”.
“It took them three years to realise that Australians’ living standards are going backwards,” he said.
“It then took them three months to organise a meeting that went for three days and delivered slogans upon which they hoped to deliver over the next three years.
“Complacency is with this government.
“The reason they held this round table is because they have no economic plan.”
Originally published as Nationals Leader David Littleproud comes clean on election shock, Coalition split
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