Australian news and politics recap May 20: National Party splits with Libs, ending Coalition

“On the idea that there was resistance to Cabinet solidarity, that would be untenable for any Liberal leader to agree to,” Ms Ley said.

“So given that was one of the Nationals demands, do you have a view that the breakdown of this Coalition was a foregone conclusion?

“If that was a red for them, that any Liberal leader could clearly not agree to?

“And just secondly, in terms of policy positions, that might be established within the Liberal Party room, if at a future date you are rejoining a Coalition, would they be reviewed again or would they be settled as they were in the Liberal Party room?”

“I don’t actually see the Coalition as a way of the two parties being shackled together,” Ms Ley said.

“I really believe that the Coalition is stronger together.

“I am a committed Coalitionist. When I came into that party room in 2001, the Coalition consisted of John Howard as prime minister and John Anderson as deputy prime minister.

“And I saw how well it worked when it worked together.”

Ms Ley added: “I am disappointed, I do want the Coalition to come together and obviously this means for the Liberal Party that the shadow ministerial positions will be filled by Liberals.

“And I have much talent in my party room. But that, if you like, is secondary to the fact that we won’t be forming a Coalition. But we want to and we remain open to it.”

“As the largest non-government political party, the Liberals will form the official opposition,” Ms Ley said.

“The Liberal Party is the official Opposition in the Parliament.

“A new shadow ministry will be drawn from the Liberals in the upcoming days, and obviously I will be saying more about that.”

Sussan Ley has acknowledged the massive job ahead for the Liberals and the Nationals.

“We both have a big job to do to take the fight up to Labor,” she said.

“Now, as Liberals, we do respect the decision that the Nationals have made and our door remains open.

“Now the Nationals sought specific commitments on certain policies, and they’ve talked about that this morning and our perspective is not about the individual policies themselves but the approach that we said we would take to our party room about policies.

“Nothing adopted and nothing abandoned. So at this point in time, I asked the Nationals to respect those party room processes.

“And similarly, I would respect their attachment to the policies that they announced as very important to them.

“But our approach, nothing adopted and nothing abandoned. So we offered to work constructively with the Nationals and we asked for that respect in return, in good faith, I proposed that we stand up a joint shadow ministry consisting of Liberal Party shadow ministers and National Party shadow ministers.

“And that we go forward in a united way and that we then work separately on policies, as we should, in our separate party rooms and come together articulating what those policies are at the right time.

“Over the course of the next term. And the Nationals did not agree to that approach.”

Liberal leader Sussan Ley is giving a press conference.

She has reflected on the Nationals walking away from the Coalition.

”We will take the time to get this right,” she said. “We’ll listen, we’ll step up, we’ll modernise and we will rebuild.

“And it is with that undertaking from my party room and with my conviction and determination to get it right with respect to policies that I had front and centre with my conversations with David.

“And while I have enormous respect for David and his team, it is disappointing that the National Party has decided today to leave the Coalition.”

A 0.25 per cent rate cut to ease the nerves, but the RBA is keeping its powder dry to ensure it can give the economy a boost if the world starts to unravel due to tariff uncertainty.

The softly, softly approach that has been a hallmark of Michele Bullock’s Governorship continues, with the bank determining that inflation is well within the band to take the foot off the brake but global uncertainty will prevent it from making any bold moves.

The bank was looking at two key factors in making its call.

READ THE FULL ANALYSIS: ​

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The Liberal Party say the decision of the Nationals to split the Coalition is “disappointing”.

In a joint statement, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and other senior Liberal figures said that its door “remains open to the Nationals should they wish to rejoin the Coalition before the next election”.

They said it had been explained to the Nationals that the Liberal Party’s review of election policies was “not an indication that any of them would be abandoned, nor that every single one would be adopted”.

“We asked the National Party to work constructively with us ... in good faith, the Liberals proposed appointing a Coalition shadow ministry now, with seperate policy development in each party room, and subsequent joint policy positions determined in the usual way,” they said.

“Unfortunately, the Nationasl determined this was not possible.”

The statement also claims that the Nationals could not explicitly agree to the Liberals’ insistence that shadow cabinet solidarity be maintained in a Coalition agreement.

WA Labor Premier Roger Cook has described the Federal Coalition’s breakup as “extraordinary”.

Speaking to media in Perth on Tuesday, Mr Cook said the Federal Liberals and Nationals were turning their backs on voters who wanted parties to be more mainstream.

“It seems that the Nationals have unhitched themselves so that they can become further unhinged and simply make their way further to the extremes of our political spectrum,” he said.

“This is a time for the Coalition to reflect, reflect on the reason why mainstream Australia turned their back on them.

“My understanding is one of the key sticking points is that the nationals are rusted onto this idea of the nuclear power fantasy, and so it’s complete bonkers.

“I can’t believe that they’ve made this decision. What we want is our mainstream political parties to come back to the mainstream, to come back to the centre.”

The Federal move mirrors the two parties’ set-up in WA, where there has not been a formal coalition agreement between the Liberals and the Nationals for decades.

“They’ve got a burden of responsibility to provide effective opposition and it seems that the Nationals believe that that responsibility is too onerous, so they’d rather just go off into the fringes of the political landscape,” Mr Cook said.

Shane Love has warned the Nationals and Liberal party are headed down the path of self-destruction if they waste resources fighting each other.

But the WA Nationals leader was optimistic that the two parties could join forces again in future.

“I know David Littleproud enough to know that he’s not going to go down a path which leads to self destruction,” Mr Love said.

“The Nationals know that if they’re going to be in government, it’s going to be with the Liberal Party.

“What this actual breathing space does is to ensure they’re not fighting each other within the Coalition.”

Mr Love said the split of the Federal Coalition would not impact the State Opposition, after the Liberals won seven seats and the Nationals’ six in the March election.

Liberal and Nationals MP’s in State Parliament operate as an alliance but Mr Love and Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas are still ironing out details of a formal agreement.

“My anticipation is that we should have that all nailed down by the end of this year,” Mr Love said.

“In fact, I would say that the events of today make it even more important.”

Ex-prime minister John Howard believes the Coalition split is bad news, insisting the Liberals the Nationals are stronger together.

“I’m naturally, as a strong Coalitionist, I’m very concerned about today developments and I hope the two parties continue to talk to eachother, and I hope that Coalition is reformed well before the next election,” Mr Howard told The Australian.

“The best interest of the two parties is served by being in Coalition and they are strongest politically and policy wise when both parties have been together.

“There have always been some policy differences, there is nothing new about that.

“It’s important that the policy differences be resolved or accommodated within the framework of a Coalition.

“If we go our separate ways, those issues will harden and become greater.”

Mr Howard said that in 1996, after a landslide victory, some within his own party wanted the Liberals to govern on its own.

“A few Liberals wanted to do that and I said no,” he said.

“I said no because I realised that we would need the partnership of the National Party after the following election and, of course, we did as we lost a lot of seats in 1998.

“I hope they continue talking and hope they reform a coalition as soon as possible.

“The idea that it will naturally come back tighter should not be entertained.”