Coalition chaos as Nationals spill attempt looms
Source: Sky News Australia
A week after the Nationals walked away from the Coalition following divisions over hate speech laws, tensions remain over whether Sussan Ley will stay on as Opposition Leader.
Deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien said he had not heard from other MPs about a possible challenge to Ley’s leadership when parliament resumed on Tuesday.
“I don’t believe there’ll be a challenge next week … I’m in close contact with my colleagues,” he told ABC TV on Thursday.
“I haven’t spoken to any colleague who believes that Sussan didn’t make the right call last week. She demonstrated enormous strength and dignity in a very difficult situation with the National Party.”
O’Brien said both parties would be stronger in a Coalition, but a reunion would not be expedited for the sake of it.
“We are best served by a Coalition government, the Liberals and Nationals working together; at the moment, that reunion hasn’t happened,” he said.
“I believe it will at some point, it can’t be forced. It’s got to be at the right time for the right reason.”
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Conservative faction members Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor are angling for Ley’s role. But neither has put up a hand to run for the leadership or declare a spill motion.
Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said Ley had backing in the party.
“I can’t predict what all of my colleagues may or may not do, but I can say that, in my assessment, Sussan continues to enjoy the support of the majority of the party room,” he told ABC radio.
“I understand my responsibilities under the Westminster convention. The first responsibility if you don’t support any leader is to tell them, and the second responsibility is to resign, and I haven’t done either.
“You can assume I continue to support Sussan.”
Ley has yet to name her full shadow cabinet following the split with the Nationals.
It means shadow portfolios such as emergency management and trade are unfilled, as those roles were previously being held by Nationals members.
Paterson said it was likely the Liberals would appoint acting spokespeople for the missing portfolios before parliament resumed on Tuesday.
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“I note that David Littleproud has not yet appointed any spokesman for those areas as well,” he said.
“We should continue to talk with the National Party and see whether reformation of the Coalition can occur.”
David Littleproud’s statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, senior Nationals members said they were confident David Littleproud would remain the party’s leader amid a looming leadership spill on Monday.
Queensland Nationals backbencher Colin Boyce has declared he will challenge Littleproud for the party’s top job when politicians return to Canberra next week.
“It seems to me that under Mr Littleproud’s leadership, to blow the Coalition up twice now since the last federal election, that is not a position I want to be in,” he told ABC Radio on Thursday.
But asked if he was actively canvassing colleagues for votes, Boyce simply said “No”.
He denied suggestions that his motion was a move to help another member’s leadership plans.
“I’m not aware of anybody else that is intending to run for leadership,” Boyce said.
Insiders believe the push to unseat Littleproud is unlikely to succeed because Boyce does not have the numbers.
Nationals frontbencher Bridget McKenzie said Littleproud would “absolutely” remain leader, telling Nine’s Today she “cannot see the spill motion getting up”.
On Wednesday night, Littleproud said a time to meet Ley would be set once the spill motion was determined in Nationals’ party room meeting.
-with AAP
