Nationals poised to re-sign Coalition agreement after ‘very encouraging' Ley, Littleproud discussions
Nationals Leader David Littleproud has signalled a Coalition deal could be soon struck after 'very encouraging' discussions with new Liberal leader Sussan Ley.
Ms Ley had presented Mr Littleproud with their response to the National's ley policy demands when the pair met on Monday afternoon.
It followed a tumultuous week after Mr Littleproud walked away from the partnership on Tuesday over a lack of guarantee on the policies before returning to the negotiation table on Thursday.
Ms Ley agreed to take the policies to her party room despite an earlier blanket commitment not to endorse any until after a post-election review but only after Mr Littleproud's concession to honour shadow cabinet solidarity.
Mr Littleproud on Tuesday told Sky News he would take the Liberal party's response to his party room but was ultimately ' fairly comfortable' with the direction of negotiations.
'We've got a set of words back that I'll present to our partyroom,' he said.
'I'm fairly comfortable. The rest of it around the positions in Cabinet are all pretty well, dictated time by arithmetic.
'Sussan and I had discussions yesterday afternoon which were very encouraging and I think we'll get into a position.'
The ball is now in the Nationals court on whether the Coalition agreement is resigned.
If the anticipated deal is struck, Ms Ley would be expected to announce her Shadow Cabinet this week, with 20 spots and 10 in outer ministry positions.
Six shadow Cabinet positions are expected to go to the Nationals and two outer ministry spots.
Mr Littleproud rejected suggestions his party had 'flip-flopped' on its split with the Liberals, saying his party was 'clear about policy' and were squeezed by a Ms Ley-imposed timeline.
He accused Canberra-based media of trying to 'conflate and confuse' the National's reasoning for walking away from the partnership after 38-years.
Mr Littleproud said the decision to walk was held by the 'vast' majority of the party room, who were prepared to give up their titles and salaries for 'legacy' policies.
'Because we didn't blink, we've got our four full policy areas assured, which was important as a principal, and as a legacy to our party room. I'm proud of the courage of our party room. Giving up jobs and title and pay because this was important to us,' he said.
Mr Littleproud said he expected there to be ongoing discussions around the party's stance on their net zero commitment to 2050, adding it had been a point of tension several times prior to the May 3 federal election poll.
'We actually reviewed it. There were two or three times in which people wanted to re-prosecute the net zero case,' he said.
'And in those cases the party room determined, in majority, that we should stick with it.
'Now, I have no doubt that during the period again of this . . . term of government that we'll also have someone who will want to bring those forward.
'If there is a view that wants to be tested then to facilitate that in the process that allows the airing of that because that makes us a stronger party.'
The step forward in negotiations comes after several Coalition MPs and Senators spoke out on the diabolical election loss in an episode of Four Corners on Monday night.
Several expressed their frustration at a botched election campaign, poor polling and 'on-the-run' policies which didn't cut through to Australians.
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'We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren's participation in the girls' track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.' Brava, brava, brava. What decency. And what a wonderful stand to take. Closer to home, last month we had our own major tabloid/talkback story about a transgender athlete at a South Australian Catholic school, who, it was breathlessly reported, had run riot at an athletics carnival. One father was quoted, saying the student 'broke a number of records competing against girls at a recent sports day ... breaking all the girls records'. It was great hate-bait, and the usual suspects on talkback and tabloid went hard. Got some hate you want to spread? Our lines are open! The former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave certainly opened up on Sky News. 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You will surprise yourself at what you can do if you really try to do something.' Australian 100m sprinter Lachlan Kennedy has broken the ten-second barrier: 'It's so good. I can finally say I run nine.' Here we were, thinking he was going for Best Supporting Actor. He thinks he's the star, and going for Best Actor – and he might be right! Loading Team of the Week Callan Ward. The career of this fellow, the heart and soul of GWS could be over after he tore his ACL – a badly buggered knee, to you and me. Alex Johnston. South Sydney speedster notched 200 NRL tries. Just 12 behind the all-time record held by Ken Irvine. Reds and Brumbies. Good luck to them in the Super Rugby Pacific finals. The Waratahs, meanwhile, have shown some improvement, but finished disappointingly. Australia/South Africa. Competing in next week's World Test Championship final at Lord's. Socceroos. 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