Coalition deal expected in 'coming couple of days' after Liberals concede to Nationals' four policy demands
A new Coalition agreement between the Liberal and National parties is expected within days, following disagreement over policy and shadow cabinet solidarity.
Despite internal dissent and rumours of a leadership coup, the Coalition will likely reassemble before the return of parliament in July.
Final details of the agreement are expected to be confirmed this week, including the allocation of shadow cabinet roles and formalisation of the joint policy platform.
Nationals' leader David Littleproud told Sky News Sunday Agenda those negotiations were now simply 'mechanics and machinery'.
'I'm expecting that Sussan (Ley) and I can get to that arrangement in the coming couple of days,' he said.
'We'll work through that together in a constructive way.'
The reconciliation comes after Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and the Liberal Party agreed to back the Nationals' core policy priorities.
'I received the written response… that the Liberal Party is prepared to accept the four policy areas that were the reason we couldn't sign up to that Coalition agreement,' Mr Littleproud said.
'They were important to us… and we made great progress in the last term of parliament. I wanted to make sure that they remained, and we couldn't get that guarantee until now.'
The Nationals' policy demands included lifting the moratorium on nuclear energy, supermarket divestiture powers and the $20 billion regional future fund.
Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg told Sky News that those proposals were 'highly desirable' after he privately expressed concerns about the lack of shadow cabinet process.
'I think what's most important here is that we maintain fidelity to our core principles, which is that, we don't determine the detail of policy today,' he said.
The Liberal Party has since agreed 'in principle' to the policies but will resolve the details of each policy at a later time.
Conversely, the Liberal Party were unwilling to compromise on the issue of shadow cabinet solidarity.
Much of the commentary around the rift focused on concerns that Nationals shadow ministers would not publicly support cabinet decisions that they personally disagreed with.
'We're not asking that we can just run off on every cabinet decision. That was never the intent,' Mr Littleproud said.
'This is a red herring to say (the split) was on cabinet solidarity. It was on those four policy areas. We've been very clear, very consistent from the very start.'
He acknowledged past friction over issues like the Voice to Parliament referendum, where the Nationals declared their 'no' position before the Liberals had finalised theirs.
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