Coalition split a ‘nuclear meltdown’, Jim Chalmers says

The Coalition has split after agreement talks broke down, with one senior party leader revealing the refused “reasonable request” that sparked the chaos.

The Coalition’s failure to lock in an agreement is a “nuclear meltdown” and shows the Liberal and National parties are “hopelessly divided”, Jim Chalmers says.

Both David Littleproud and Sussan Ley on Tuesday blamed each other’s parties for failing to ink new a partnership agreement, making it only the fourth time the arrangement has been breached.

They also said their doors remain open to eacher other.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra after the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates, the Treasurer said the “Coalition now is nothing more than a smoking ruin”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has called the Coalition’s failure to lock in an agreement a ‘nuclear meltdown’. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“They are hopelessly divided on personalities and on policy,” Mr Chalmers said.

“It shows that the new leadership has failed its first test. It shows that they’ve learned absolutely nothing from the last few weeks or indeed, the last few years.

“This is a nuclear meltdown in the Coalition.”

He said it was “hard to see how Australians can take them seriously when they don’t even take each other seriously”.

“Also clear is the contrast between a government getting on with the job, managing the economy responsibly, here to talk with you today about the second interest rate cut in three months and a Coalition — or a former Coalition — completely and entirely focused on themselves,” Mr Chalmers said.

“They tried to divide the Australian community in the election campaign and they ended up dividing themselves, and the consequence of that is that the Liberal Party is now barely bigger than the crossbench in the parliament.”

‘Sit alone’

Fronting media earlier, Mr Littleproud said his party had reached “a position where we will not be re-entering a Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party after this election”.

“The National Party will sit alone on a principle basis,” he said.

“On the basis of looking forward, not having to look back and to try and actually regain important policy pieces that change the lives of the people we represent.

“It’s on a principle position of making sure that those hard-fought wins are maintained and respected, we continue to look forward.”

The Nationals have said the Liberals rejected four key policies — a claim Ms Ley has rejected.

Speaking to media later, Ms Ley said her former Coalition colleagues “sought specific commitments on certain policies” and that “our perspective is not about the individual policies themselves, but the approach that we said we would take to our party room about policies”.

David Littleproud has revealed the Nationals will ‘sit alone’ in the next parliament. Picture: Sky News

“Nothing adopted and nothing abandoned,” she said.

“So at this point in time, I asked the nationals to respect those party room processes.

“And similarly, I would respect their attachment to the policies that they announced as very important to them.”

Ms Ley said the Liberals “offered to work constructively with the Nationals, and we asked for that respect in return, in good faith”.

“I proposed that we stand up a joint shadow ministry consisting of Liberal Party shadow ministers and National Party shadow ministers, and that we go forward in a united way and that we then work separately on policies … in our separate party rooms and come together articulating what those policies are at the right time,” she said.

“Over the course of the next term. And the Nationals did not agree to that approach.”

Key policies

The National Party’s leader in the Senate, Bridget McKenzie, said a breakdown in support for policies that had been backed in the previous Coalition agreement was to blame for the collapse.

“A reasonable request was put to a trusted partner and it was refused,” Senator McKenzie said.

“Policies that we had fought for, that only a few weeks ago, we fought an election on.”

She said divestiture powers, nuclear power, its proposed regional Australia fund and telecoms coverage were key areas the Nationals could not walk away from.

“Why in this day and age, we think that antitrust laws are so onerous, it beggars belief. If supermarkets and big box retailers misuse their market power, just like in the UK and the USA, they should be subjected to divestiture,” she said.

“Nuclear power – why in this day and age, as an industrial power we should not avail ourselves of the backyard we have of uranium, just like the UK, just like the USA, just like France, to provide a reliable, sustainable, affordable, low emission energy source into the next century – way beyond 2050?

“And why we should walk away from a Regional Australia Future Fund of $20 billion that was designed to assist the regions to overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities that the next two and a half decades are going to be felt in our communities.”

Senator Bridget McKenzie detailed four key issues that had played a role in the breakdown of the Coalition agreement talks. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Much like Ms Ley, Mr Littleproud said the parties would remain on good terms.

“I had a respectful conversation with Sussan Ley this morning, sat down, made it very clear that we remain committed to having the door open, respecting the position that Sussan has been put in – that she is a leader that needs to rebuild the Liberal Party,” he said.

“They are going on a journey of rediscovery, and this will provide them the opportunity to do that without the spectre of the National Party imposing their will.

“We’ll be pragmatic, and we’ll work constructively with Sussan and her team to make sure that we bring down the Albanese government after the next election.”

Relations between the parties have been under severe strain since the federal election, when the Nationals held their lower house seats while the Liberal vote collapsed.

Liberals official opposition

At the time of writing, the Liberal Party held 18 seats in the House of Representatives, while the Queensland LNP held 16 and the Nationals, who retained all their seats, hold nine.

LNP members — of which David Littleproud is one — pick their party rooms at the federal level.

Post-Coalition split, the LNP divvy up gave the Liberal Party 28 seats and the National Party 15.

Ms Ley said the Liberals would serve as the official opposition.

“As the largest non-government political party, the Liberals will form the official opposition,” she said.

“A new shadow ministry will be drawn from the liberals in the upcoming days, and obviously I will be saying more about that at the time.”

But she added she wanted to “work very closely with the Nationals, and they want to work very closely with us”.

“We will co-operate in the parliament in processes, in everything that allows us to bring together the very strong areas of public policy, of philosophy, but most importantly of values that we share as we do go forward and as somebody who represents rural and regional Australia,” Ms Ley said.

It was revealed in the election post-mortem that the Liberals did not consult their National Party colleagues on key policies before announcing them.

Liberal Leader Sussan Ley and deputy Ted O'Brien have been tasked with rebuilding their party after a bloodbath loss in the Federal Election. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Nationals have also blamed the senior Coalition partner for costing them their former deputy leader, Perin Davey.

Senator Davey ran on a joint Liberal ticket that dragged down her vote.

But Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defecting to the Liberal Party room earlier this month pushed tensions to the brink.

Mr Littleproud said the Nationals would work with their traditional partners “when the Liberals decide what they want to be”.

“My job is not to be a drag on their boat and I’ve got to say, I never saw a billboard, I never saw a piece of material from the Labor Party attacking me, or the National Party at the last election,” he said.

“The National Party didn’t drag anyone’s vote down in the capital city because we’re able to focus on the things that are important to us.”

A joint statement from NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman and NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders confirmed the split would not affect the state’s Coalition agreement.

“In NSW the Liberals and Nationals enjoy a strong working relationship,” it read.

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