Libs-Nats split paused amid talks as Sussan Ley meets David Littleproud

The Coalition break-up has been put on hold, with Nationals leader David Littleproud revealing he will give Sussan Ley more time to work through policy demands with the Liberals.

The breakup of the Coalition has been put on pause with Nationals leader David Littleproud revealing he will give Sussan Ley more time to work through policy demands with her Liberal party room.

Mr Littleproud said the pause would allow time for Ms Ley to call her party room together, to discuss the Nationals’ four policy demands.

“We didn’t do what we did on a Tuesday lightly,” he said.

“It was a tough decision, a huge decision.

“I have made it clear that I’m prepared to pause my announcement today as a sign of good faith.”

Mr Littleproud said the push around cabinet solidarity came from the intent that the Nationals had breached that last term around the Voice referendum.

Leader of The Nationals, David Littleproud. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

He said it was not taken to the party room because he accepted the written response from Ms Ley.

“I’ve got to say that actually hurt in some small way, the relationship I had with Peter,” he said.

“I lost trust and I had to rebuild that, and I’ve got to be honest about that ... but I didn’t want that to happen again.”

Asked if he considered breaking out of the Coalition before the last election, Mr Littleproud said: “No”.

He maintained that the Nationals had not split “for show”, saying the Liberals had indicated their policy review was “months away”.

Mr Littleproud refused to weigh in on whether an outcome would occur in days or weeks, but said a shadow ministry needed to be appointed before parliament was expected to resume at the end of July.

He rejected the assertion that the two parties could not form a meaningful team because of recent leaking, saying “I can trust Sussan”.

Grilled on whether lifting the ban on nuclear power would be enough to get the Nationals over the line, Mr Littleproud said: “We want to see a technology agnostic approach, and removing the ban is a significant step”.

Asked whether Ms Ley would need to commit to state-built nuclear power stations, he said: “No, we’ve been very public about that from the start, very pragmatic”.

JOYCE WELCOMES A PAUSE

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said you had to welcome the pause because they had one job - to be an effective opposition and hold the government to account.

“I hope that things get resolved,” Mr Joyce told Sky News.

“Why would you hope for a less than effective capacity to hold the government to account, and to be quite frank, chaos.”

Mr Joyce said he had kept communication lines open with the Liberals, adding the Nationals needed to give “all our endeavors to sorting this out”.

Nicholls MP Sam Birrell, who had made his reservations about the split known internally, reiterated that this needed to be resolved as soon as possible. “I’m very pleased that discussions are ongoing and I hope that in a very near future, there is a strong Coalition ready to take up the fight to the Albanese government,” Mr Birrell said.

LEY REACHES OUT TO NATS

Ms Ley has reached out to Nationals MPs who have expressed support for rejoining the Coalition.

She had been widely expected to finalise a Liberal-only shadow ministry as soon as Thursday, but multiple sources inside the party said they had detected a “cooling” of the rush in favour of securing a new deal with the Nationals.

Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley may pause announcing her Liberal-only opposition frontbench. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

One MP said it would be better for Ms Ley to delay announcing her frontbench if there was a chance of getting a deal on the four policy demands issued by the Nationals rather than promote Liberals only to have to take their new positions away from them in the event a Coalition agreement was reached.

In the event that occurred the Nationals would take on likely six to eight shadow ministries, with one Liberal saying Ms Ley did not have the authority internally to weather stripping those positions from her own MPs.

ABBOTT WEIGHS IN

Former prime minister Tony Abbott earlier said the Liberals and Nationals split was a “recipe for permanent opposition” as more disputes break out between the two parties over what prompted the separation.

Mr Abbott said it was “deeply regrettable” a new agreement had not been reached because history showed the Coalition “wins together and loses separately”.

“It’s very important that there is a strong and clear alternative to a deeply underwhelming government,” Mr Abbott told 2GB.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott on election night. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“If the Libs and the Nats go their separate ways, we won’t have one strong opposition, we’ll have two opposition parties that are fighting each other as much as they’re fighting a bad government.”

Meanwhile Nationals leader David Littleproud has dodged questions about whether he had requested to become deputy opposition leader — a position normally afforded to the deputy Liberal, which is now Queensland MP Ted O’Brien.

“I’m not going to go into that. I don’t think that’s something that should be aired in public,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“These are private negotiations between Sussan (Ley) and myself and I don’t intend to enter into commentary.”

A dispute has also emerged over whether the Nationals’ request to be able to break shadow cabinet solidarity and have senior members votes against positions settled by the leadership.

Ms Ley has previously said she was not confident in being able to secure a guarantee around solidarity, but Nationals senate leader Bridget McKenzie has denied the split was caused by this.

“It was solely on those four policies,” Ms McKenzie said.

The four issues were nuclear energy, a $20 billion regional fund, supermarket divestiture and regional telecommunications.

LIBS TO REVEAL FRONTBENCH

Ms Ley is preparing to unveil a Liberal-only opposition frontbench, as one National MP calls for an urgent reunification of the Coalition warning the separation is a “free pass” for Labor.

The Opposition Leader was expected to announce her shadow ministry imminently with up to 30 Liberals out of a party room of at-most 54 members due to receive a role should she choose to mirror Labor’s frontbench.

Hopes of a quick reunion between the two parties is fading, but senior Liberal Dan Tehan earlier said there was still “time” until Ms Ley’s frontbench announcement for both sides to agree to further negotiate.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Mr Tehan said it would be “disappointing” if the Nationals stuck with their decision to split.

Another senior Liberal also called for the separation to be sorted “as quickly as it can”, saying the less time the parties spent talking about themselves, the better.

Meanwhile, Nationals MP Darren Chester has urged his colleagues to rejoin the Coalition before parliament resumes in late July.

“I think it is a question of if we go to the next sitting of parliament and still being two divided party rooms, we are giving a free pass to the Prime Minister,” he told the ABC.

Dan Tehan. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Darren Chester. Picture: NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Anthony Albanese, who returned to Australia after almost a week overseas meeting world leaders, said his job was to “remain focused on leading a government that is orderly”.

“I make this point: political parties will not be successful if they’re focused on themselves,” he said.

The Prime Minister has the power to allocate extra staff to crossbench MPs at his discretion but, asked if he would consider this in the case of the Nationals, Mr Albanese said he was not inclined to.

“Clearly it is not reasonable that there be more staff or a reward, if you like, for the fact that you have this division,” he said.

“So, we’ll give consideration to it, and I’ll have discussions with both Sussan Ley and David Littleproud about that, as well as the crossbenchers.”

As the official opposition, the Liberals are entitled to 21 per cent of total government staff, with the party indicating it was not inclined to share with the Nationals so long as the rural MPs sat on the crossbench.

Nationals MPs were still in the dark on Wednesday about the approach to portfolios and what their staffing allocations would be, with one saying they were in “uncharted territory”.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan, who has an economics degree and worked for the Productivity Commission, has been backed by his colleagues for an economic portfolio.

But Mr Canavan said he was happy to do what he could to support the team.

“We are a small group so all have to fight together,” he said.

It comes as former deputy prime minister and Nationals Party member John Anderson called on both parties to resolve their differences sooner rather than later and focus on threats to Australia.

“There are actually really huge issues that need to be addressed and it’s about policy, policy, policy, and then … finding the most effective way to prosecute the case and I don’t believe that is as a divided force,” Mr Anderson said.

Originally published as Libs-Nats split paused amid talks as Sussan Ley meets David Littleproud