Andrew Bolt: Sussan Ley could be about to make her second big mistake

The Nationals may have actually done Liberal Leader Sussan Ley a favour by walking out of the Coalition, but if she doesn’t have the courage to seize it she’ll make this disaster even worse.

Sussan Ley seems about to make her second big mistake, just a week after becoming the federal leader of the shattered Liberal Party.

But all I read in the media is journalists kicking the Nationals instead, for walking out of the Coalition.

Let’s take a chill pill. The Nationals could actually have done Ley a favour, if she has the courage and speed to seize it.

If she doesn’t – if she stays rigidly process-driven – she’ll make this disaster even worse.

Ley’s first mistake was not to say a quick yes when Nationals leader David Littleproud asked her to agree to four demands to keep the Nationals in the tent.

They should have been no-brainers.

Littleproud first of all wanted the Liberals to stick with promising nuclear power. Were the Liberals really going to make themselves laughing stocks as wimps and poll-chasers by now running from a policy they’ve claimed for years is critical to cutting emissions and still keeping on the lights?

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley could be about to make her second big mistake. Picture: Martin Ollman

The other demands were even easier: to make supermarket chains sell parts of their business if found in breach of competition law (unlikely to be used); to create a $20bn fund for services for the regions (why not?); and to make phone companies meet minimum service standards out bush (of course).

Ley reportedly told Littleproud she was confident she could get her party to agree, if she had time.

On Wednesday, influential Liberal frontbencher James Paterson agreed: “Had we been given reasonable time we could have come to a mutual agreeable landing.”

The time Ley wanted was to honour her commitment to listen, reflect and consult all her Liberal colleagues before deciding what policies to stick with.

Really? There’s not one Liberal policy she couldn’t commit to right now? This is putting process over judgment and it’s caused a disaster.

The Nationals rightly feared the Liberals would wobble, and wanted to be clear before resuming the coalition what their red-line demands were. So they’ve walked.

This split will be wickedly hard for the Liberals. So was it really was impossible for Ley to immediately rally her party’s brains trust and wider party room at least get agreement to the Nationals’ minimal demands?

Nationals Leader David Littleproud, Deputy Leader Kevin Hogan and Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie speak to the media on Tuesday. Picture: Lukas Coch

Ley’s second mistake will make this split harder to heal.

She should still be doing everything to fix this divorce in the next few days, but instead seems about to put the cart before the horse by announcing her new shadow ministers.

Naturally, given there’s no Coalition now, they’ll all be Liberals. So if the Liberals and Nationals do reform the Coalition before the election, around six of those Liberals may have to be dumped to give the Nationals their fair share of these top jobs.

How will that go down in the party room? Six ambitious Liberals all publicly humiliated.

No, far better to fix this fast, and announce a shadow ministry of both Liberals and Nationals after that. Ley could meanwhile appoint just a skeleton team of shadows to buy time.

Yes, the Nationals have been hard line and impatient. But much of the criticism of them seems little more than the snobbery of inner city journalists for a party of the bush.

Take this, from the political editor of the Left-leaning Sydney Morning Herald: “The Nationals have stormed off in a state of righteous indignation … (and) have sacrificed not only relevance but also salary allowances for their more senior members.”

Sussan Ley and David Littleproud during Question Time at Parliament House earlier this year. Picture: Martin Ollman

I’d say politicians sacrificing tens of thousands of dollars by losing shadow ministries is something to praise, as a sign of how principled the Nationals are.

Then this: “The junior coalition party is especially vulnerable now … Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer will prey on their weakness to compete for every one of their voters.”

But that’s happening already. They Nationals did just keep all their lower house seats, unlike the Liberals, but their vote was eaten away by pushier conservative parties – One Nation, Trumpet of Patriots, Family First, Libertarian Party and other parties also unlikely to form government.

If they now form a Coalition with Liberals so spooked that they shift to the don’t-hit-us Left, they’ll look dumb.

That’s why they’ve put a stake in the ground now. And Ley could exploit this to tell her party: we can’t lose our nerve. We lost not because of our beliefs but our sheer incompetence in campaigning. Our fear of arguing for our nuclear power plan.

And she could point to the Nationals and say, see, we Liberals have no choice, anyway. Stay strong.

Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Sussan Ley could be about to make her second big mistake