Littleproud was poised to dump his party rivals. They worked with Ley to rescue the Coalition

Nationals leader David Littleproud was preparing to dump former leaders Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce from his front bench on Thursday, but is now facing questions about his future after the pair worked with Liberal leader Sussan Ley to pressure him into reopening Coalition talks.

Just 48 hours after announcing his party would walk away from its long alliance with the Liberals, Littleproud had to shelve his shadow cabinet plans and restart negotiations as former prime ministers and party leaders condemned the schism as a disaster.

Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley.Credit: AAP

The decision to sideline the senior MPs will reverberate in the Nationals party room, while the battle between the nation’s conservative parties threatens to drag on for weeks.

Liberal MPs met on Thursday evening in a virtual hook-up, agreeing to give closer examination to the Nationals’ terms in a meeting next week, but also vented about Littleproud’s handling of the coalition negotiations, according to several MPs speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Littleproud said in a snap press conference in Parliament House earlier that the aim now was to create a joint shadow cabinet by the time the parliament resumed on July 22.

“I think that that would be the intent of everybody because it would be great to walk in as a shadow cabinet together,” he said.

Ley asked Littleproud for patience while she consulted her party room on the Nationals’ four requests – which include nuclear energy and powers to break up supermarkets – but has not yet agreed to enshrine any of them in a new agreement.

Littleproud had earlier forfeited his request for Nationals frontbenchers to be allowed to speak against party positions, but insisted that the Nationals remained wedded to the key policy demands.

Littleproud’s authority was called into question after Ley went over his head to lobby Joyce, McCormack, and National MP Darren Chester to use their influence to bring Littleproud back to the negotiating table after they dissented against the split in a Tuesday meeting of Nationals MPs.

In a day of high drama in Canberra, Littleproud was proceeding with his plan for the Nationals to go it alone as late as about 10am on Thursday, when he convened a meeting of his “shadow shadow cabinet” in Canberra.

Former National leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The group included Senator Matt Canavan in the treasury portfolio but failed to include Joyce and McCormack, both of whom were shadow ministers last term but who had been raising concerns about Littleproud’s plans to end the Coalition following the opposition’s election drubbing.

Littleproud agreed to stand down his Nationals-only leadership group when Ley contacted him on Thursday morning, asking to resume talks. She said she would reconvene Liberal MPs to reassess Littleproud’s policy demands, an action some of her MPs believe she should have taken earlier in the week.

As the Liberals have promised a full policy review process, they are unlikely to quickly settle their positions on two of the Nationals’ most contentious policy demands – energy policy and divestiture powers to break up big-box retailers.

Credit: Matt Golding

Liberal sources said the review could take as long as six months, and the matter of divestiture policy, in particular, was likely to spark thorough debate. Littleproud said he would give the Liberals as much time as they needed.

“I don’t want to put specific days or weeks on it and I don’t think that that is constructive. I think that this is a positive development, one that does show good faith,” Littleproud said.

Critical to Ley’s peace offer was Littleproud’s remarks on morning TV where he admitted for the first time that he had asked her to create new rules allowing shadow ministers to speak out against party policies, including on net zero. Nationals MPs had not heard this demand until Ley revealed it, prompting Littleproud’s supporters to question whether he was giving all the information to his MPs.

Two Nationals MPs said Littleproud’s long-term future as leader was in doubt after he backed away from the prospect of blowing up the Coalition for the first time since 1987.

“The second this is resolved with the Liberals, the clock is ticking for him. Whether it’s now or later, it will likely happen,” one said.

Joyce, a key internal critic of Littleproud, does not have the numbers to run for leader and is recovering from cancer surgery. Moderate Darren Chester could win support from some conservative, anti-Littleproud forces. McCormack would stand the best chance of defeating Littleproud, but he dead-batted questions from this masthead about whether he was thinking of doing so.

“That’ll be up to the party room. There’s been a few mistakes this week, but I’m just happy things are heading in the right direction. I’m not contemplating it. David is the leader and I support him,” McCormack said.

McKenzie, an influential driver of the move to split the Coalition, told this masthead: “There’s no question about David Littleproud’s leadership. He has taken everything to the party room and the party room has driven our response to this.”

Handing Canavan the treasury role after he spent years as a party rebel worried some of Littleproud’s less conservative allies in the party. The front bench roles would have conferred extra status but would not have come with bigger pay packets.

Canavan challenged Littleproud’s leadership last week and, while the results of the ballot are secret, several Nationals MPs believe Canavan came closer than expected, with about eight of 20 votes.

“Bringing Matt in after David and the leadership [had] stigmatised this guy for years shows how much pressure he is under to hold together this party room,” one Nationals source said.

Littleproud and Ley both claimed they had not backed down in the stand-off. Littleproud said Ley’s offer of further negotiations proved she had softened her position, while Littleproud’s statement on ABC that he was happy to sign up to shadow cabinet solidarity allowed Liberals to claim he had backflipped.

Ley welcomed that commitment “as a foundation to resolve other matters” in a statement issued shortly after Littleproud’s announcement.

“Earlier today, I wrote to, and met with, David inviting him to re-enter good-faith negotiations. I am pleased he has accepted,” she said.

“In relation to the policy positions proposed by the National party room, consistent with my consultation commitment, the Liberal Party will consider these, utilising our party room processes.”

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