Littleproud and Ley in crisis talks as they seek to reunite Coalition

Australia Broadcast Center

22-05-2025

Welcome back to your weekly federal politics update, where Brett Worthington gets you up to speed on the happenings from Parliament House.
David Littleproud has always been a man in a rush.
He spent just 18 months on the backbench before being catapulted into cabinet in his first term.
The meteoric rise brought with it jokes that "Littleknown" might have been a more apt surname.
The son of a Queensland MP, the now 48-year-old agri-banker turned politician has built a brand that's all about discarding suit jackets and speeches, opting instead for rolled up sleeves and impromptu comments.
"I can't read speeches," he told the National Press Club last month.
"I get bored."
If it wasn't apparent before, that he was willing to rock up to a nationally televised speech to offer 30 minutes of unaided remarks goes some way to explaining the confidence Littleproud has in his own abilities.
So far, it's worked a treat.
Having weathered the Joyce-McCormack-Joyce leadership era, Littleproud emerged as the Nationals new leader in 2022.
He would have become deputy prime minister if voters hadn't so dramatically repudiated the Coalition at this month's federal election.
A young politician (in political terms) with one of the safest seats in the country, provided Littleproud could keep his party onside, destiny awaited as the nation's deputy prime minister.
Events, dear boy, events.
There's nothing unusual about tension between the Coalition parties, especially when it comes to the prenup that oversees their political marriage.
When Malcolm Turnbull toppled Tony Abbott as prime minister in 2015, the Liberal leader paid a courtesy visit to Nationals leader and deputy prime minister Warren Truss in his Parliament House office.
In veteran journalist Laurie Oakes' telling of the story, Turnbull poked his head in the door, scanned the room, which included Barnaby Joyce, and declared: "I own more cattle than all of you."
You can only imagine how well that went down with the country cousins.
The relationship seems to work best when an urbane Liberal joins with a regional Nat to lead the Coalition.
Each can roll their eyes at the other's party but there's no competitive tension because the Liberal leader isn't, well, urinating on the Nationals' patch.
It's not been since another Malcolm led the Liberals that the party had a regional MP at the helm.
Malcolm Fraser's victories in the 1970s were so dominant he didn't need the Nationals in the House of Represenatives to pass legislation but kept them in the Coalition tent.
The loss of city seats to Labor and teals in successive elections meant whoever became the post Peter Dutton leader — be it Sussan Ley, Angus Taylor or Dan Tehan — was going to be a regional Lib leading the opposition.
In the case of Ley, there's been little Nationals love for her ever since the Liberal replaced former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer when he retired from his regional NSW electorate.
It's been even more tense between Ley and Littleproud thanks to a series of disputes when they were sitting at Scott Morrison's cabinet table, namely over live sheep exports and water policy.
Which brings us to this week and the on again, off again, on again relationship that's played out between the artists formerly known as the Coalition.
Littleproud has again looked like a man in a rush.
He's made a lot about how generous he says he was to drive to Albury to hold talks with Ley, who'd returned home to nurse her dying mother. (If the Coalition had won, not only would his petrol have been cheaper but it's a drive he wouldn't have been making but we digress.)
When Ley refused to cave to his demands, which likely would have been bad news for her own fledgling leadership, he was rushing to the microphones to announce the marriage was off... for now.
Littleproud insists he was just following Ley's timeline. He also insists the issue was about the four policies he was demanding the Coalition keep (nuclear energy, the ability to break up supermarkets, a regional infrastructure future fund and guaranteed phone coverage in the bush).
There's likely a deal to be done on all four.
But when Ley became leader she vowed there would be no captain's calls and that all policies were up for review, with voters having made clear what they thought of the former Coalition's commitments.
There were also reports that the Nationals wanted the ability to sit in the shadow cabinet, take the extra pay that affords them and then speak out, and vote against, agreed positions, which was a non-negotiable for Ley.
Littleproud, on Thursday, conceded her position on cabinet solidarity was fair and with that talks have now resumed between the bickering partners who need each other if they're ever to take the house.
If the parties can't reach a deal before parliament returns on July 22, few think that there will be anyway to unscramble this egg before the next election.
If they can't, not only will Nationals frontbenchers be down around $60,000 in annual pay, the party of smaller government will find itself a party of smaller staff allocations.
Throughout the week, the Nationals have insisted they're willing to walk away from what has been Australia's most successful political union.
They say they speak for the 9 million Australians who live beyond the cities.
Looking at their vote count, far fewer than 9 million were opting for National voices.
With 90 per cent of votes counted, the Nats attracted shy of 600,000 first-preference votes, or 3.8 per cent of the 16.4 million votes cast.
Even if you gave the Nats all the LNP votes from Queensland (1.1 million), and the Country Liberal votes from the NT (36,000), it would still be behind Labor (5.3 million), the Liberals (3.2 million) and the Greens (1.9 million).
It's a far cry from the 9 million being talked about.
Before we move on, a timely reminder about Sussan Ley's name after both Littleproud and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese botched it this week.
Spelt with two s's and one e, it's pronounced as if it's one s and two e's. Think: Susan Lee.
Having been in the parliament for almost a quarter of the century and now the first woman to lead not just the federal Liberal Party but the opposition, the least the leaders of Labor or the Nationals could do is afford her the respect of pronouncing her name correctly.
It's hard to find anyone calling out to hear more from federal politicians after Australia just endured a months' long election campaign.
It's little wonder the prime minister, fresh from his trip to Indonesia and Rome, made clear to reporters on Wednesday that he was taking a few days off.
You can hardly blame him for wanting to put his feet up.
If his landslide victory wasn't cause enough for celebration, a Reserve Bank interest rate cut and the Coalition tearing itself apart is a political trifecta he could have barely dreamed of mere months ago.
His break could well be interrupted if conditions continue to deteriorate in regional NSW, where deadly floods are wreaking havoc.
His approach is a stark contrast to the picture he painted before the election, when he held daily press conferences at the National Emergency Management Centre as Tropical Cyclone Alfred forged a path for the Queensland coast.
But this time it fell to the new Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain to explain why the PM wasn't responding the same way post-election.
"At this stage we've got a disaster unfolding, we've got a range of river systems yet to peak, and rain that is still heavily focused over a particular area," she said, unable to say when he would be visiting.
"Our focus right now is on that immediate response phase."
It has also not been lost that while water devastated regional communities, senior Nationals were in Canberra divvying up the spoils of defeat.
Not to be outdone with parliamentary theatrics in Canberra, Labor's Kyle McGinn offered quite the farewell to the WA state parliament.
He had cause for working up a hard-earned thirst after delivering an almost hour-long valedictory speech this week.
As he finished, he reached for a beer with his right hand and his shoe with his left.
Pouring the beer into the shoe, he said "cheers" before downing the contents of his sneaker.
Bottoms up.