Matt Canavan snubbed on live TV by deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien after Coalition split

The Coalition split keeps getting messier after Nationals senator Matt Canavan was ditched by deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien on live TV.

Today host Karl Stefanovic said Mr O’Brien had agreed to appear alongside Mr Canavan on the show out of courtesy but bailed just minutes before the pair were set to go on air.

“We asked deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien on the show last night, and he agreed this morning, out of courtesy,” Stefanovic said.

“We told him Matt Canavan was coming on to all seemed okay. And then 20 minutes ago, his team, team rang saying he won’t come on with Canavan.

“I mean, you can’t make it up. It’s like maths.”

Senator Canavan took the snub in stride, declaring: “I don’t know, I definitely don’t have a problem with Ted or anybody in the parliament.

“My No.1 focus is always about what I can do for people,” he said.

The senator, who recently lost a challenge for the Nationals leadership, said he had spent the night before away from his family to “help the Australian people”.

“I do think that this is the best thing for the Australian people, we need to take up the fight on, on issues for people that are struggling,” he said.

“I think we’ve held ourselves back a bit as the Nationals party in the past few years, we haven’t fought enough.”

Senator Canavan declared the relationship between the parties was strictly “business” and not a “marriage” and the Coalition split shouldn’t be referred to as a divorce.

“(Divorce) is very dramatic, but this is simply a business arrangement between two political parties,” Senator Canavan said.

“We are separate political parties. We will now fight separately within the in the parliament, but we’ll work together where we can as well.”

He continued, saying that the “best approach for both parties right now is to pause”.

“The Liberal Party have a lot of issues to work out subsequent to the election, which was a terrible result. I just think this is the best for both parties that we work those things out separately.”

‘Can’t walk past’: What caused Coalition split

Nationals leader David Littleproud said he didn’t “want to be fighting for three years” for Coalition guarantees, amid messy split.

“It was a principled position. We couldn’t get a guarantee that policies that were important to regional Australia, that were a Coalition policy before the last election around regional’s Australia’s future … we didn’t ask for a lot, but we couldn’t get that guarantee,” he said

“And these are things that would change the lives of regional Australians and we don’t want to be fighting for three years to try and get that.”

Mr Littleproud was also asked if compromise with the Liberals was on the table in order to still operate in government

“I won’t be in parliament unless I stand up and get what’s needed for the people that represent,” he said.

“But you can’t give them that from opposition. You have to do that from government.

“If the Liberal Party can get to a point of agreement on these policy agreement, we’re happy to sit down and talk, and I’ve made it clear the door’s always open. It always will be. But this was a threshold question that our party room could not walk past.”

Mr Littleproud said he wants to see a return to the Coalition but not at the cost of regional Australian values.

‘Wouldn’t listen’: Hume reveals new detail on Coalition breakdown

Liberal senator Jane Hume blasted the Nationals’ decision to walk away from the political union in her own morning TV appearance on Wednesday.

“The Liberal Party are very disappointed that the National Party have chosen to walk away from the Coalition agreement,” she told Sunrise on Wednesday morning.

“Sussan Ley has said we want to do a full review of our policy suite. That’s fair and reasonable after an election loss like the one that have just had.

“(The Nationals) wouldn’t listen. that doesn’t mean any particular policy will be abandoned nor does it guarantee it will be adopted — a review is entirely the right decision.”

Senator Hume also took a gibe at the Cabinet solidarity, which she said was a “sticking point”.

“The Nationals wanted the ability to essentially dissent in Cabinet, to walk out of Cabinet with some people with one view and some people with another,” she said.

“That’s not how Cabinet works in a functioning government, indeed a functioning Opposition … having Cabinet consensus and solidarity is fundamentally important.”

However, she said the “door is always open” for a reunification, declaring the Coalition are “stronger together”.

“I know the National Party believe themselves to be the party of regional Australia and rural Australia, but we also have some seats that are held by the Liberal Party that are in regional and rural Australia as well,” she said.

“Which is why we have that much more broader perspective in the Liberal Party … but we know that we need to make sure we listen to the messages of the last election, that we heed those messages and respond to them.”

Howard issues plea after Coalition split

Other critics have weighed in on the dissolution of the century-long partnership.

Former prime minister and Liberal Party leader John Howard pleaded for the Coalition reunite, declaring their partnership “the glory days” for both parties.

Speaking to Andrew Bolt on Sky on Tuesday night, Mr Howard said he was “very deeply sorry” that the separation had happened.

“I urge both parties to work overtime to put the Coalition back together again because all the history of Australia suggests that the glory days of the Liberal Party and the National Party, the old Country Party, are when they are working together in government

“My experience as a Liberal leader and as a Coalition Prime Minister is that when you have a strong Coalition and plenty of trust, you can resolve many policy differences.”

This comes after the Coalition Party — the most successful political union — made a shocking decision to split on Tuesday.

Speaking to Paul Murray on Tuesday night, Mr Littleproud was also questioned on what had gone so wrong.

“With the circumstances that Sussan (Ley) had, in terms of wanting to be able to announce a shadow cabinet which meant a Coalition agreement had to be done in the coming days,” he said.

“But not being able to give us that comfort or guarantee that those policies that we’re looking at could be guaranteed because she wanted to go through a longer period of policy formation that we could not sign up to because these are hard fought wins that change the lives of people in regional Australia.”