Federal politics live: Matt Canavan questioned over John Howard’s ‘stupid’ warning

Today show host Karl Stefanovic has been rocked by a politician’s last-minute no-show after discovering who he would be paired with during a live cross.

The Nationals are dealing with the fallout from their decision to “blow up” the Coalition agreement this morning amid predictions it could last for three long years.

Leadership challenger Matt Canavan has revealed this morning that the climate wars are a factor.

He’s suggested that his fight to dump net zero targets is one of the factors not listed on the Nationals list of demands that will be easier to pursue while the two parties “take a break”.

National Party leader David Littleproud announced on Tuesday that the party will dump the Coalition agreement in the wake of the disastrous election result.

He is blaming a fight over the four policy issues including the future of nuclear power and supermarket divestitures.

Overnight, he’s appeared on the ABC’s 7:30, and he’s been hit by a brutal question over who is to blame for the Coalition split.

“Who blew up the Coalition – the National Party or the Liberal Party?” host Sarah Ferguson asked.

Mr Littleproud was unrepentant, insisting that it was a big call that had to be made.

“We could not get an iron-clad guarantee,” he said.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley has revealed she fears one of the real reasons the Coalition split was over the Nationals wanting to cross the floor on climate change, including net zero targets.

The Nationals have listed the big factors as nuclear as part of the energy mix, divestiture powers for supermarkets as a last resort, an off-budget fund for the regions, and mobile phone access renegotiation agreements in the bush.

Read on for the latest updates

Originally published as Federal politics live: Matt Canavan questioned over John Howard’s ‘stupid’ warning