Latest news with #Liberal-NationalsCoalition
The Advertiser
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Staring into the political abyss, a small opportunity arises
Just three weeks ago, the Liberal-Nationals Coalition was boasting that it alone was fit for the rigours of national leadership. Australians were assured that the unique city-country partnership was rock-solid, bursting with purpose and singularly focused on you, the voter. Now, it has turned on itself and an arrangement considered so institutional that its title warranted capitalisation, has collapsed, its sworn life-partners unwilling to reconcile, unable to cohabitate. Feelings are hurt and angry words are flying. Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie told reporters that "a reasonable request was put to a trusted partner, and it was refused". This pointed lament referred to the Nats' commitment to forced divestiture powers over the major players in the supermarket duopoly. The Nats wanted a renegotiated Coalition agreement to lock in the policies the political duopoly had just pledged to voters - divesture, nuclear energy, a $20 billion regional future fund, and regional telecommunications. No dice. Amid the anger, there is also schadenfreude. "The parties of divide-and-conquer have thoroughly conquered themselves," noted Thomas Mayo drily, a prominent advocate for the defeated Voice referendum. The Nats had effectively forced the Liberals' hand in 2022 by campaigning against the Voice five months before Peter Dutton officially followed suit. Now in damage control mode, opposition "pollies" insist their life-long bond is merely in abeyance, asleep rather than dead. But this is one deceased-looking parrot. For a start, only one of these parties will be the official opposition. Post-divorce, the smaller Nats will lose that status and thus forego frontbench salary loadings and additional shadow ministerial staff allocations. The House Representatives will be transformed, and not just because of Labor's eye-watering 50-seat lead. Geological and geographical metaphors are common in politics - think landslide wins, tectonic shifts and steep mountains to climb. So where does the end of the Coalition as-we-know-it, stand metaphorically? While to most voters, its passing will fall well short of an earthquake, because that already happened on May 3, it qualifies more as an aftershock. But this is an aftershock of the decisive kind, the rumble that finally brings a weakened house in on itself. And further ructions are imaginable including resignations and even byelections. Back in 1987, when the two conservative parties last split, ensuring their electoral failure in the federal election that year, Bob Hawke had famously quipped "if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the country". There is much in this. For, whatever differences and tensions the coalition arrangement had papered over, its joint branding has been a sellable package, with the LNP (as it is often shorthanded) winning and governing more often than its common enemy, the ALP. For all that though, this bust-up might be an opportunity in disguise - especially for Sussan Ley who faces the daunting but existential task of rebuilding the Liberals' decimated city base. A frank assessment of Peter Dutton's disastrous leadership will inflame divisions between sane Liberals in the urban centre-ground and the party's "Foxified" right wing, but corralling the conservative Nats into any realigned public presentation would have only added to the difficulty. Ley's mission involves reforming a structurally decrepit Liberal Party and renewing its base in order to attract disaffected urbanites in what she calls "modern Australia" - especially younger voters and women. Rebuilding might just be easier without Barnaby Joyce and the nuclear Nats in her backpack. Just three weeks ago, the Liberal-Nationals Coalition was boasting that it alone was fit for the rigours of national leadership. Australians were assured that the unique city-country partnership was rock-solid, bursting with purpose and singularly focused on you, the voter. Now, it has turned on itself and an arrangement considered so institutional that its title warranted capitalisation, has collapsed, its sworn life-partners unwilling to reconcile, unable to cohabitate. Feelings are hurt and angry words are flying. Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie told reporters that "a reasonable request was put to a trusted partner, and it was refused". This pointed lament referred to the Nats' commitment to forced divestiture powers over the major players in the supermarket duopoly. The Nats wanted a renegotiated Coalition agreement to lock in the policies the political duopoly had just pledged to voters - divesture, nuclear energy, a $20 billion regional future fund, and regional telecommunications. No dice. Amid the anger, there is also schadenfreude. "The parties of divide-and-conquer have thoroughly conquered themselves," noted Thomas Mayo drily, a prominent advocate for the defeated Voice referendum. The Nats had effectively forced the Liberals' hand in 2022 by campaigning against the Voice five months before Peter Dutton officially followed suit. Now in damage control mode, opposition "pollies" insist their life-long bond is merely in abeyance, asleep rather than dead. But this is one deceased-looking parrot. For a start, only one of these parties will be the official opposition. Post-divorce, the smaller Nats will lose that status and thus forego frontbench salary loadings and additional shadow ministerial staff allocations. The House Representatives will be transformed, and not just because of Labor's eye-watering 50-seat lead. Geological and geographical metaphors are common in politics - think landslide wins, tectonic shifts and steep mountains to climb. So where does the end of the Coalition as-we-know-it, stand metaphorically? While to most voters, its passing will fall well short of an earthquake, because that already happened on May 3, it qualifies more as an aftershock. But this is an aftershock of the decisive kind, the rumble that finally brings a weakened house in on itself. And further ructions are imaginable including resignations and even byelections. Back in 1987, when the two conservative parties last split, ensuring their electoral failure in the federal election that year, Bob Hawke had famously quipped "if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the country". There is much in this. For, whatever differences and tensions the coalition arrangement had papered over, its joint branding has been a sellable package, with the LNP (as it is often shorthanded) winning and governing more often than its common enemy, the ALP. For all that though, this bust-up might be an opportunity in disguise - especially for Sussan Ley who faces the daunting but existential task of rebuilding the Liberals' decimated city base. A frank assessment of Peter Dutton's disastrous leadership will inflame divisions between sane Liberals in the urban centre-ground and the party's "Foxified" right wing, but corralling the conservative Nats into any realigned public presentation would have only added to the difficulty. Ley's mission involves reforming a structurally decrepit Liberal Party and renewing its base in order to attract disaffected urbanites in what she calls "modern Australia" - especially younger voters and women. Rebuilding might just be easier without Barnaby Joyce and the nuclear Nats in her backpack. Just three weeks ago, the Liberal-Nationals Coalition was boasting that it alone was fit for the rigours of national leadership. Australians were assured that the unique city-country partnership was rock-solid, bursting with purpose and singularly focused on you, the voter. Now, it has turned on itself and an arrangement considered so institutional that its title warranted capitalisation, has collapsed, its sworn life-partners unwilling to reconcile, unable to cohabitate. Feelings are hurt and angry words are flying. Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie told reporters that "a reasonable request was put to a trusted partner, and it was refused". This pointed lament referred to the Nats' commitment to forced divestiture powers over the major players in the supermarket duopoly. The Nats wanted a renegotiated Coalition agreement to lock in the policies the political duopoly had just pledged to voters - divesture, nuclear energy, a $20 billion regional future fund, and regional telecommunications. No dice. Amid the anger, there is also schadenfreude. "The parties of divide-and-conquer have thoroughly conquered themselves," noted Thomas Mayo drily, a prominent advocate for the defeated Voice referendum. The Nats had effectively forced the Liberals' hand in 2022 by campaigning against the Voice five months before Peter Dutton officially followed suit. Now in damage control mode, opposition "pollies" insist their life-long bond is merely in abeyance, asleep rather than dead. But this is one deceased-looking parrot. For a start, only one of these parties will be the official opposition. Post-divorce, the smaller Nats will lose that status and thus forego frontbench salary loadings and additional shadow ministerial staff allocations. The House Representatives will be transformed, and not just because of Labor's eye-watering 50-seat lead. Geological and geographical metaphors are common in politics - think landslide wins, tectonic shifts and steep mountains to climb. So where does the end of the Coalition as-we-know-it, stand metaphorically? While to most voters, its passing will fall well short of an earthquake, because that already happened on May 3, it qualifies more as an aftershock. But this is an aftershock of the decisive kind, the rumble that finally brings a weakened house in on itself. And further ructions are imaginable including resignations and even byelections. Back in 1987, when the two conservative parties last split, ensuring their electoral failure in the federal election that year, Bob Hawke had famously quipped "if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the country". There is much in this. For, whatever differences and tensions the coalition arrangement had papered over, its joint branding has been a sellable package, with the LNP (as it is often shorthanded) winning and governing more often than its common enemy, the ALP. For all that though, this bust-up might be an opportunity in disguise - especially for Sussan Ley who faces the daunting but existential task of rebuilding the Liberals' decimated city base. A frank assessment of Peter Dutton's disastrous leadership will inflame divisions between sane Liberals in the urban centre-ground and the party's "Foxified" right wing, but corralling the conservative Nats into any realigned public presentation would have only added to the difficulty. Ley's mission involves reforming a structurally decrepit Liberal Party and renewing its base in order to attract disaffected urbanites in what she calls "modern Australia" - especially younger voters and women. Rebuilding might just be easier without Barnaby Joyce and the nuclear Nats in her backpack. Just three weeks ago, the Liberal-Nationals Coalition was boasting that it alone was fit for the rigours of national leadership. Australians were assured that the unique city-country partnership was rock-solid, bursting with purpose and singularly focused on you, the voter. Now, it has turned on itself and an arrangement considered so institutional that its title warranted capitalisation, has collapsed, its sworn life-partners unwilling to reconcile, unable to cohabitate. Feelings are hurt and angry words are flying. Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie told reporters that "a reasonable request was put to a trusted partner, and it was refused". This pointed lament referred to the Nats' commitment to forced divestiture powers over the major players in the supermarket duopoly. The Nats wanted a renegotiated Coalition agreement to lock in the policies the political duopoly had just pledged to voters - divesture, nuclear energy, a $20 billion regional future fund, and regional telecommunications. No dice. Amid the anger, there is also schadenfreude. "The parties of divide-and-conquer have thoroughly conquered themselves," noted Thomas Mayo drily, a prominent advocate for the defeated Voice referendum. The Nats had effectively forced the Liberals' hand in 2022 by campaigning against the Voice five months before Peter Dutton officially followed suit. Now in damage control mode, opposition "pollies" insist their life-long bond is merely in abeyance, asleep rather than dead. But this is one deceased-looking parrot. For a start, only one of these parties will be the official opposition. Post-divorce, the smaller Nats will lose that status and thus forego frontbench salary loadings and additional shadow ministerial staff allocations. The House Representatives will be transformed, and not just because of Labor's eye-watering 50-seat lead. Geological and geographical metaphors are common in politics - think landslide wins, tectonic shifts and steep mountains to climb. So where does the end of the Coalition as-we-know-it, stand metaphorically? While to most voters, its passing will fall well short of an earthquake, because that already happened on May 3, it qualifies more as an aftershock. But this is an aftershock of the decisive kind, the rumble that finally brings a weakened house in on itself. And further ructions are imaginable including resignations and even byelections. Back in 1987, when the two conservative parties last split, ensuring their electoral failure in the federal election that year, Bob Hawke had famously quipped "if you can't govern yourselves, you can't govern the country". There is much in this. For, whatever differences and tensions the coalition arrangement had papered over, its joint branding has been a sellable package, with the LNP (as it is often shorthanded) winning and governing more often than its common enemy, the ALP. For all that though, this bust-up might be an opportunity in disguise - especially for Sussan Ley who faces the daunting but existential task of rebuilding the Liberals' decimated city base. A frank assessment of Peter Dutton's disastrous leadership will inflame divisions between sane Liberals in the urban centre-ground and the party's "Foxified" right wing, but corralling the conservative Nats into any realigned public presentation would have only added to the difficulty. Ley's mission involves reforming a structurally decrepit Liberal Party and renewing its base in order to attract disaffected urbanites in what she calls "modern Australia" - especially younger voters and women. Rebuilding might just be easier without Barnaby Joyce and the nuclear Nats in her backpack.
Perth Now
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
‘Unconventional': Would-be leader's motto
In the wake of a crushing defeat for the Liberal-Nationals Coalition, Nationals senator Matt Canavan has called for a fresh approach in the party's leadership. Senator Canavan is challenging incumbent Nationals leader David Littleproud when the party room meets in Canberra. on Monday. 'We obviously didn't do a good enough job to convince people to change,' he said. 'Liberal-Nationals Coalition has suffered the worst defeat since World War II, and so I think it is a time where we perhaps look to unconventional responses to get ourselves back in the game. '(The Labor Party) has got a big task to do. We are, as a country, losing our income, losing our industries, losing our laid-back culture … I do hope Albanese can find the leadership that he lacked in the last few years to change the direction of our country.' Senator Matt Canavan says the Nationals 'deserve a choice' of leaders. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia David Littleproud is expected to retain his job as Nationals leader. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Senator Canavan refused to comment on whether he or Nationals leader David Littleproud was being backed by the party's former leader Barnaby Joyce. 'I think David's done an excellent job over the last term in changing the policy agenda for the Coalition,' Senator Canavan said. 'They're putting nuclear energy on the table for the first time, divestiture policy in our competition law has been a longstanding goal of the Nationals party, and he was a part of the team that took the Voice down as well. 'We didn't win though and ultimately his job, like any major leadership role, is a performance-based job.' Senator Canavan is the only challenger against Mr Littleproud for the top job as 'discontentment' runs rife within the party. 'I'm glad I put my hand up because I think our party deserves a choice. I think the people deserve a choice,' Senator Canavan said. Another MP said Mr Littleproud would likely stay on as leader, but there was 'a lot to discuss post-election'. 'All of our party members and all of our party elected members should be demanding leadership that works, and no one should take it for granted, and they should always be questioned,' one senior Nationals source told The Australian.
West Australian
05-05-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Australian Federal election results and updates: Wong says Australia will work with US on new movie tariff
Scroll down for the latest news and updates. The Liberal-Nationals Coalition will need a 'deep, honest and brutal examination' of what went wrong in the Federal election campaign, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie has admitted. The Senator told ABC Radio National Breakfast there was 'no one issue' for the catastrophic loss, adding, 'let's give credit where credit's due, the Labor Party ran a superior campaign.' She also downplayed the suggestion that Trumpian policies could have contributed to the wipeout, arguing that the global shocks created by the US President benefited incumbent governments. 'Australians saw their super balances shatter overnight and a lot of global uncertainty, which doesn't favour oppositions,' she said. 'I think it's also very important to make clear that Donald Trump isn't a conservative. He is literally ripping down institutions in a reaction to a political class in America, which is very different to the political class here in Australia.' But she said that policies like the plan to cut 41,000 public service jobs and lean into DOGE-style and DEI tactics would be wrapped into 'a comprehensive, deep and brutally honest review.' The Nationals Party did well because of a 'focus on localism and on putting policies forward that our communities support and want to see delivered,' said Ms McKenzie. Foreign Minister Penny Wong says the Albanese Government will be 'working together' with the Trump Administration after US President Donald Trump announced a new movie tariff. 'We all know how many films we see, made in Australia, made between Australia and American filmmakers,' Wong told Sunrise. 'We know how many Australian actors are beloved by American audiences. 'We obviously will be presenting our view about this to the US administration. I do welcome the fact that the President has indicated he's going to engage with the studios about it. 'We want to be able to see films where you get both Aussie actors and American studios working together.' Senator Wong highlighted recent joint ventures like The Fall Guy and Elvis, adding that the Government will engage 'not just for the economic opportunity' but also because 'it's a good thing for us to be working together on films and entertainment'.
