‘Stupid move’: Howard urges parties to come back together

Former PM John Howard has urged the Liberals and Nationals to “put the Coalition back together again”, saying it will only get harder to resolve policy differences the longer they spend apart.

The Liberal leadership team says it is “disappointed” by the Nationals’ decision to split from the Coalition, but have vowed to work “collaboratively” with the rural party.

In a joint statement Liberal leader Sussan Ley, her deputy Ted O’Brien, Senate leader Michaelia Cash and Senate deputy Anne Ruston said the door “remains open” for the Nationals to re-enter a Coalition agreement “should they wish” before the next election.

The Liberal team said they tried to work “constructively” with the Nationals and asked the party to respect their process for settling policy rather than demanding things be locked in as part of the agreement.

“In good faith, the Liberals proposed appointing a joint Coalition Shadow Ministry now, with separate policy development in each party room and subsequent joint policy positions determined in the usual way,” the statement said.

“Unfortunately, The Nationals determined this was not possible.”

Australia's Deputy Leader of the Opposition Ted O'Brien speaks at a press conference with Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AFP

Former prime minister John Howard has urged the Liberals and Nationals to “work overtime” to “put the Coalition back together again” saying it will only get harder to resolve policy differences the longer they spend apart.

Mr Howard, who was leader of the Liberals in 1987 the last time the Nationals split from the Coalition, said he didn’t compare the latest separation to the “pretty painful” one almost forty years ago, but added he was “very sorry” it had happened again.

“I urge both parties to work overtime to put the Coalition back together again,” he told Sky News.

“All the history of Australia suggests that the glory days of the Liberal Party and the National Party, the old Country Party, are when working together in government.”

Mr Howard said there were always differences between the Nationals and Liberals, but they were best resolved within the framework of the Coalition.

He also described it as a “stupid move”.

John Howard has urged the Liberals and Nationals to “work overtime” to “put the Coalition back together again” saying it will only get harder to resolve policy differences the longer they spend apart. Picture: Dan Peled/Getty Images

“My experience as a Liberal leader and as a Coalition Prime Minister is that if you have a strong coalition and plenty of trust, you can resolve any policy difference,” he said.

Mr Howard also cautioned both sides could “never get everything you want”.

The former PM said he strongly believed nuclear power was part of the “ultimate solution” to Australia’s energy mix, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t be some “nuance” in the policy.

“I hope fervently that the Liberal Party sticks … to its nuclear policy,” he said.

But on net zero and other issues, he said a long separation between the Coalition parties risked a hardening of views.

“That will make the ultimate coming together, more difficult and more challenging,” he said.

Mr Howard said when he was elected in 1996 with enough seats for the Liberals to govern in their own right, he defied the calls of some to maintain the Coalition out of a belief in the long term importance of the agreement.

He said shortly after he made the decision to maintain the Coalition, the Port Arthur massacre occurred and the Nationals backed his tough gun control laws, even though it was “tough” for the rural party’s supporters.

“In a sense, they repaid the loyalty they’d been shown at the time of the election,” he said.

“And it drove home to me that a coalition works best when there’s a spirit of give and take.”

The Liberals confirmed they “insisted” shadow cabinet solidarity be maintained in any agreement, which was “not explicitly agreed to by the Nationals”.

The Liberals are the official Opposition as the largest non-government political party and Ms Ley is due to announce a new shadow ministry drawn exclusively from her party room in the coming days.

The Liberals held crisis talks today to discuss the fallout from the Nationals walking out on the Coalition agreement.

The real reason for the Nationals leaving can now also be revealed, after they wanted to sit on the Coalition frontbench but have the right to vote against positions decided in shadow cabinet with the Liberals.

It is understood a key sticking point for the Liberals before the talks broke down was a demand by the Nationals to have roles in the Coalition’s shadow ministry yet retain the freedom to vote however they wanted.

A Liberal said this was widely interpreted as the Nationals seeking a path to be able to vote against net zero emissions by 2050, even if the Coalition shadow cabinet’s position was to support the target.

When in Opposition, Coalition members of the backbench are able to speak and vote freely without punishment, but senior frontbench members are bound by what is known as “cabinet solidarity” meaning they are required to support any positions adopted by the shadow cabinet.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has announced the Nationals have split from the Coalition agreement with the Liberals. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

It comes as the NSW Liberal and National parties have vowed to remain in coalition despite the split of their Federal counterparts.

In a very brief joint statement from NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman and National leader Dugald Saunders, they reaffirmed their commitment to the relationship.

“In NSW the Liberals and Nationals enjoy a strong working relationship,” the statement said.

“We look forward to ongoing collaboration to hold the failing Minns Labor Government to account.”

Queensland based Nationals MP Michelle Landry said of the decision: “This is not a total divorce from the Liberal Party forever. Obviously we’ll look at policies on each side and work together for the benefit of this nation and if we want to win the next election, we will need to form a coalition again for that.”

Earlier, Nationals leader David Littleproud announced his party would not be “re-entering” a Coalition agreement with the Liberals — an arrangement that has existed for almost 80 years.

The rural party had been seeking agreement from the Liberals to lock in support for nuclear energy, powers to break up the big supermarkets, a $20 billion regional fund and an expansion of universal service obligations to mobile phones as part of Coalition talks.

But Liberal leader Sussan Ley maintained the agreement was designed to decide issues like the makeup of portfolio positions on the frontbench. not settle policy debates.

Ms Ley has previously promised her Liberal colleagues no policies are on or off the table, and the party room will have a chance to get their say on the future of proposals.

Mr Littleproud said he had given a commitment to Ms Ley to “regularly” meet in the case there is a chance of reforming the Coalition.

“This isn’t about closing the door, this is making sure someone can walk through the door,” he said.
Mr Littleproud said if an agreement could not be reached, the Nationals would go to the next election on its own.

“This isn’t anything personal, this is principle” he said.

Mr Littleproud said the split was a “healthy thing” for the Australian people to know the party would stick to its principles, and if those issues could be resolved then the Nationals would rejoin with the Liberals in the future.

The Nationals want the Liberals to lock in support for divestiture powers. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

News Corp revealed on Monday the Liberals were resisting the Nationals’ push to include policy positions in the Coalition agreement.

Emboldened by his party’s relative strength after the Liberals’ election wipe-out, Mr Littleproud was seeking to secure agreement on a range of commitments from last term.

It is understood this includes support for divestiture powers to break up the big supermarkets if they are anti-competitive, an issue that bitterly divided the Liberal Party room when it was debated last year.

Nuclear energy is also on the list of demands, as is a $20bn Regional Australia Future Fund promised by Peter Dutton at the election.

Deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan said keeping this huge off-budget fund was “really important” to the regional MPs who fought for it.

“We do not want to go back to square one,” Mr Hogan told ABC.

But a Liberal source familiar with negotiations said the party strongly believed the Coalition agreement was supposed to settle how roles and portfolios were shared between the two parties, not decide policies.

They said resistance to the Nationals’ demands had nothing to do with whether the Liberals would ultimately support the policies.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley. Picture: Saeed Khan / AFP

Speaking on Monday morning, Mr Littleproud said Australia “can’t” reach net zero without nuclear energy, but was open to lifting the moratorium to allow the market to fund reactors rather than taxpayers.

Mr Littleproud said the commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 was an issue for the Liberals and Nationals to reach consensus on within their own party rooms.

He said the Nationals policy was to “support” net zero using nuclear to get there, though not necessarily the Dutton-era plan to construct seven reactors with taxpayer money.

“Whether it’s specifically the policy that we took around government-owned or whether it’s simply removing the moratorium on it, I think you have to be pragmatic,” he told Sunrise.

Nuclear energy is also on the Nationals’ list of demands. Picture: Matthieu Rondel/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Senior Liberal Senator Jane Hume said her personal view was voters sent a “very clear message” on net zero when they re-elected Labor.

“Abandoning net zero I don’t necessarily think is consistent with that,” Ms Hume told Sky News.

Though she added it was a “discussion for the party room”.

Earlier South Australian Liberal Senator Alex Antic declared the “only way” for the Liberals to rebuild was to dump net zero.

Nationals Queensland Senator Matt Canavan last week contested Mr Littleproud for the party’s leadership running on a platform of ditching net zero.

Though he was defeated, Mr Canavan said he had “accomplished” his mission of getting the prospect of its dumping on the agenda.

Originally published as ‘Stupid move’: Howard urges parties to come back together