Australian news and politics recap May 23: Libs set to agree ‘in principle’ to Nationals’ Coalition demands

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns have arrived at the SES centre in Maitland.

They will provide an update on the NSW floods and response at 12.45pm AEST.

“We do have blue sky in some of these locations where we’ve got evacuation warnings in place,” Superintendent Dallas Burnes told 7NEWS.

“Can I ask the community in those locations to refrain from returning.

“We don’t know if it’s safe on those roads. We don’t know if the power is safe. We don’t know if the sewer systems are safe yet.

“We will take out those emergency warnings when it’s safe to do so.

“We’re also concerned about some further river rises that might be possible because of rainfall up in the higher catchment areas, which is still to come downstream.

“So you maybe standing in beautiful sunshine at the moment, but the river may still rise up further than what it is at the moment, probably not to the heights that they’ve experienced in the last 48 hours, but it still may pop back up again.

“Please be cautious.”

Senior manager of state operations for the NSW SES, Superintendent Dallas Burnes says operations in flood-affected areas are “intensive” and ongoing.

“So, still a very intensive operation going on in the Mid North coast. 170 flood rescues across the state in the last 24 hours, 150 of them in our northern zone, seven in metro zone, dealing with the flash flooding and people driving into flood waters and getting stuck in our metropolitan areas,” he told 7NEWS.

“So in the northern zone, the focus today is really going to be on resupply for those 50,000 people who are currently isolated, a large amount of them in Taree, obviously, until the M1 gets cleared and we get access into that town there, normal supply chains are down.

“So varying types of resupply depending on if it’s an individual house that’s isolated, a village or a town, those resupplies can be happening by aviation boats, cars, large trucks, a lot of planning going into it, and we’ll be doing that for the next 48 hours in some of those locations, possibly out through to Sunday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns are attempting to reach flood-stricken areas of NSW, but have been held back due to weather.

The two were meant to be travelling to Taree, one of the worst-hit areas. However, it is understood that heavy rain and remaining high flood waters have delayed the visit.

Mr Albanese and Mr Minns are expected to speak from the SES in Maitland later on Friday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reminded Australians not to “take risks” as he travels to flood affected areas in NSW.

“My heart goes out to the people affected… it’s a reminder to not take risks. If it’s flooded, forget it,” he said on 2GB on Friday morning.

“At the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character — the heroes of the SES, the ADF, and volunteers helping out their neighbours.”

“There’s going to be a big recovery effort required.

“We’re Australians — people pitch in — and that’s exactly what we’re seeing now.”

The Liberal Party is expected to accept four policy demands made by the Nationals as a condition for the Coalition getting back together.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley addressed her party room during a virtual hook up on Thursday evening, with MPs agreeing on broad support for remaining in the political marriage following the shock split.

The demands made by the Nationals are expected to be further discussed by Liberal MPs in another meeting at 1pm on Friday.

They include a commitment to nuclear energy, divestiture powers against supermarkets, boosting phone connectivity in the bush, and a regional investment fund.

Deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan said he expected the Liberals to accept their terms.

“They’re saying that they now will, and those type of policies are really important to us,” he told Nine’s Today on Friday.

“Some of those policies took us five years to negotiate and get through the Coalition party room process, and we don’t want to lose them.

“Otherwise they may never come back onto the policy agenda again.”

Read the full story.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has invoked a Scott Morrison-esque warning for David Littleproud, when asked if the Nationals leader had his full support.

Mr McCormack said the future of Mr Littleproud’s leadership “will be up to the party room”.

Asked if the leader has his full support in the future, Mr McCormack said: “I’m ambitious for him” - the same infamous words Mr Morrison said beside Malcolm Turnbull two days before he replaced him as PM.

“He’s been messy, he’s been really messy and for people on the outside looking in, they just wonder what the hell is going on,” Mr McCormack said of Mr Ltitleproud on Friday.

Mr McCormack also confirmed he spoke with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley about trying to reunite the coalition.

“Sussan and I are very close and we speak together very regularly. The Nationals walked away from the Liberals, and Sussan was the newly anointed Liberal leader, it’s important that I did talk to her to try and get things patched up,” he told ABC Radio.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, now Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, says the Government is monitoring “developments” after US President Donald Trump banned Harvard University from having international students, including Australians.

“We are monitoring closely developments at Harvard University in relation to the administration’s statement this afternoon on the future enrolment of international students,” he said in a statement on X.

“I know this will be distressing for Harvard’s many Australian students.

“The Embassy is working with the United States Government to obtain the details of this decision so that Australian students can receive appropriate advice.

“We also intend to engage the administration more broadly on the impact of this decision for Australian students and their families, both at Harvard and at other campuses across the United States.

“Should any Australians require urgent consular assistance, please contact the Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 (in Australia) or +61 2 6261 3305 (from overseas).”

Read the full story.

Nationals MP Darren Chester has confirmed he was involved in talks with the Liberal Party about renewing the Coalition agreement.

The Gippsland MP, along with former party leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack, were among a group of Nationals MPs privately advocating to bring the Coalition back together after David Littleproud walked away from negotiations on Tuesday.

Mr Chester joked, “who would have thought you see the days (of) those three working together?”, but confirmed he had been involved.

“I had conversations with some Liberal colleagues who I have known for a long time and respect, and pointed out to them that the issue around cabinet solidarity was not something that, I think, should have been a non-negotiable point,” he told ABC News.

“The principles around cabinet solidarity and shadow cabinet solidarity are well understood. If you can’t agree with a position taken by the cabinet or shadow cabinet, you stand down.”

Senior Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan says a “lot of progress has been made” in trying to reunite the two coalition parties.

Mr Tehan, poised to be a senior frontbencher, would not be drawn on Mr Turnbull’s “stupid” comments, saying the Liberal Party had a clear focus.

“A lot of people will have a lot of things to say about the process. — They always do. But what I want to focus on is making sure that we come together and we get the outcome that is in the best interests of this nation,” he said.

He also expressed “deep concerns” that Labor’s large majority in the lower house and a weakened opposition would create an “arrogance out of the prime minister”.

Labor is on track to hold 94 seats when Parliament resumes in late July.

“We all have deep concerns that we’re going to see an arrogance out of the prime minister, given the size of the election result,” Mr Tehan told ABC Radio on Friday morning.

“We’re going to see them tend to want to do more than they told the Australian people that they were going to do – what we’re going to see is bad government.”

“We have a big job on behalf of the Australian people in making sure that we hold the Albanese Labor government to account.

“They now have a large majority, and we need a proper functioning opposition that can work on behalf of the Australian people to make sure that they govern in the national interest and not in their pure political interests.”