EDITORIAL: Petulant Nationals hand more power to Albanese

It’s not goodbye, but until we meet again.

There was “no animosity, no angst, no heat and (the split) is predicated on respect and understanding” Nationals leader David Littleproud said, channelling his best Gwyneth Paltrow as he announced his party’s conscious uncoupling from the Liberals.

“We have had a coalition of over 80 years and I suspect we will have one in the future. It has been broken before. What this is about is taking a deep breath and say to the Australian people this is time apart (for) us to be better, focus on them,” he said, ending a decades-long political partnership — the most electorally successful in Australia’s history.

For now though, the Nationals needed to give the Liberals some space as Sussan Ley led them on “a journey of rediscovery”.

It’s yet another humiliation to compound the Liberals’ misery, weeks after their shellacking at the hands of Anthony Albanese’s Labor.

Cutting through Mr Littleproud’s therapy-speak, his explanation for the split centred on the Nationals’ refusal to back down on key policy demands including on nuclear energy and supermarket divestiture powers.

Off the record explanations expanded the sources of tension to include net zero and the defection of CLP Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the Liberal partyroom.

The decision to blow up the partnership was made despite the fact the Liberals had not outright rebuffed those demands, but had only vowed they would review all their policy positions as they regrouped from the stinging election loss. The Liberals have indicated that it is likely that review would lead them to a consensus position with the Nationals, yet still Mr Littleproud chose to throw the toys out of the cot.

The coalition between the Liberals and the Nationals has long had its points of contention. The principles held by the agrarian socialist Nats don’t always mesh well with the economic liberalism of their big brother in the now-defunct coalition.

Yet one can’t exist without the other, should they ever wish to govern again.

The Liberals understand this — it’s why they have a track record of acting against their own interests in the past in acceding to the Nationals’ demands.

The Nationals’ petulance has served only to hand more power to Mr Albanese and threatens to lengthen the time that will be spent by both former partners in the wilderness.

Mr Littleproud says he hopes the Liberal take the time to reconnect with the city voters who have steadily abandoned them at successive elections — an estrangement in part caused because of those voters’ distaste for the increasingly extreme Nationals.

Some time out from under the Nationals’ yoke may be good for the Liberals in the short term at least. But the goal for both parties must be to come back to a workable and stable reconciliation, or they can say goodbye to any hope of being a credible alternative government.