Sussan Ley ‘forceful and firm’ against Liberal concerns

Liberals have urged Sussan Ley against signing ‘blank cheque’ deals with the Nationals after agreeing in-principle to the junior party’s four policy demands ‘with caveats’ and giving her a green-light to resume negotiations with David Littleproud on re-forming the Coalition.

David Littleproud insists he respected Sussan Ley's 'personal circumstances' after bombshell Coalition split announcement.

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Liberals have urged Sussan Ley against signing “blank cheque” deals with the Nationals after agreeing in-principle to the junior party’s four policy demands “with caveats” and giving her a green-light to resume negotiations with David Littleproud on re-forming the Coalition.

The Opposition Leader on Friday won authority from her party room to strike a deal with Mr Littleproud on a new Coalition agreement and opposition frontbench, after he was forced by disgruntled Nationals MPs to reverse the decision to split from the Liberals.

Senior Liberal sources said Ms Ley and Mr Littleproud would negotiate one-on-one in coming days, with hopes that a deal could be struck

by the end of next week.

While the Liberals reached a consensus to agree broadly to the Nationals’ four policy demands, concerns over the party’s re-adoption of a pro-nuclear stance was aired during the virtual meeting.

Ms Ley told Liberal members, who expressed frustration with the Nationals getting what they wanted despite the country party’s “poor behaviour and brinkmanship” earlier in the week, that the only way to remain competitive against Labor was to prioritise the Coalition.

“Sussan (Ley) basically just shut all that down and said ‘the only way we ever win is if we are a Coalition together and on that basis, we’re going to find a very reasonable pathway forward, end of story’,” one senior Liberal MP said.

“So yeah, she was quite firm and forceful in where she wanted to go. She heard people out, she detected a mood in the room and then called it for the people who wanted back in. I thought that was quite good compared to where I think a lot of people thought it was going to go.”

As part of his conditions to re-enter a Coalition agreement, Mr Littleproud last week told Ms Ley that the Liberals must agree to adopt policies embracing nuclear energy, allowing for divestiture powers in the supermarket sector, addressing telecommunication black spots and committing to a $20bn regional Australia fund.

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - May 20, 2025: Leader of the Opposition Sussan Ley holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Despite concerns around the divestiture power – which Peter Dutton agreed to as a last resort for anti-competitive behaviour in July 2024 – Liberals said they had accepted the policy last year out of necessity and would do so again.

“We sucked it up then for important reasons around (working with) the Nationals, we’ll suck it up now,” one Liberal source said.

Liberals stressed that the green light for Ms Ley to go back to the negotiating table with Mr Littleproud did not represent “a blank cheque”.

“We will be continuing negotiations with the Nationals. But there are still some details that have to be worked through especially in a couple of areas,” one source said.

“The policies in the four areas are fine but we will not support a blank cheque. There is an overall policy review but we can provide in-principle support for these policies but with caveats on the details.”

Mr Littleproud’s backflip on his original “principled position” to walk away from the Coalition agreement was blasted as “messy” by his colleagues, with questions being raised internally over whether he should remain as leader over the long-term.

“David’s leadership has finally been put under a spotlight and it has been a very bad week,” one Nationals source said.

“There’s nothing happening right now but somehow he’s managed to bring together (former Nationals leaders) Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce. There is no immediate call for a leadership vote but no-one in the party thinks he will remain as leader moving forward.”

Another Nationals source said Mr Littleproud had reached out to Anthony Albanese earlier this week in a bid to lock down resources and major party status for the Nationals in the Senate.

“It’s been a tough week. David folded really quickly. It means that we’ve lost our bargaining chip and he enters negotiations from a weak position.”

When asked if he had any desire to take over the Nationals leadership from Mr Littleproud, Mr McCormack invoked Scott Morrison’s famous line uttered alongside Malcolm Turnbull before he replaced him as prime minister in 2018: “I’m ambitious for him”.

“I’m not planning to roll David any time soon,” Mr McCormack, a former Nationals leader, told the ABC.

The former deputy prime minister confirmed he had been having “a lot of fruitful discussions” with Mr Joyce, who is reportedly eager to see Mr McCormack run for leadership.

Ms Ley will restart negotiations with Mr Littleproud in coming days, after having spoken to him briefly on Thursday when he confirmed publicly he would not seek to have the convention of shadow cabinet solidarity changed in any way.

After Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection to the Liberals, the Nationals have a shadow cabinet allocation of 6, down from 7 in the previous parliament.

Liberal MP Dan Tehan, a former cabinet minister, said it was critical to have a “united and effective opposition” to compete with Labor.

“We have a big job on behalf of the Australian people on making sure that we hold the Albanese Labor government to account,” he told ABC.

But there remained concern around the issue of nuclear energy for some moderates, who said any policy that left the door open to nuclear power provided a political opportunity to Labor.

“There was a bit of concern around nuclear … as a vote killer, and if we went anywhere near it, we’re going to be accused of adopting an old policy,” one Liberal MP said.

“Even the lifting of the moratorium type approach and forgetting the rest of the policy, there is still a risk that it might be perceived as just a reopening of the whole nuclear debate and enables Labor to go ‘this time, yeah, they’re going to go with (lifting the moratorium on) nuclear, but they’re not going to tell you where they’re going to put the power station.”

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam said the “differences of opinion” on policies such as nuclear in particular were “minute”, but that the saga had been one of botched processes.

“This could have been handled so much better,” he told Sky News.

“It’s been one of the most unfortunate weeks in politics I think I can recall in a very long time.”