Nationals leader David Littleproud has strongly hinted that his party cannot serve in a shadow ministry under Opposition Leader Sussan Ley.
The rupture became public on Jan. 21, when all Nationals MPs withdrew from the Coalition frontbench, following the earlier resignation of three senators who defied a unified shadow cabinet position on Labor’s anti-hate bill.
Ley had earlier accepted the resignations of Senators Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald, and Ross Cadell after they voted against the bill.
Littleproud said the Nationals had warned there would be consequences if those resignations were accepted.
“That consequence is that the Coalition would be untenable. It would be forced into position that could not continue,” he said, adding that both he and deputy leader Kevin Hogan had been involved in discussions where those consequences were made clear.
“One in, all in. One out, we’re all out,” Littleproud told reporters.
“This is not what the National Party want, but I cannot stand by and have three courageous senators who put their jobs on the line for no reason,” Littleproud said.
This recent division isn’t the first time the Coalition’s two partner parties have fallen out.
What Went Wrong According to Littleproud
Littleproud said the Nationals had sought more time to consider the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Bill 2026, and pushed for amendments they believed were essential, but ultimately failed.“With all due respect I get the circumstances that were presented but process was important,” he said. “We are talking about national security. We are talking about the rights of Australians that we were going to take away.”
He said the Nationals acted in good faith throughout negotiations but could not support the bill once it became clear their concerns would not be addressed.
“We made every effort to ensure that we could get both bills through, and we weren’t far off, but we just didn’t have that comfort, and we ran out of time,” Littleproud said.
Ley Draws the Line
Ley did not respond publicly on Jan. 22 citing the national day of mourning for the Bondi Beach terror attacks, but in a statement issued the previous day she defended her decision, saying shadow cabinet solidarity was non-negotiable.She said the shadow cabinet had unanimously agreed to support the legislation subject to specific amendments, which were successfully negotiated with the government.
Those changes narrowed the scope of the bill, including measures to make Islamist extremists easier to deport, and neo-Nazi groups easier to disband.
“I acknowledge this was a difficult issue for the Nationals’ party room and that they had three different positions across both houses of the Parliament,” Ley said in the statement shared with The Epoch Times on Jan. 21.
“Some members voted against the legislation, another voted for it, and several took a deliberate decision to abstain.”
Ley said she had repeatedly made her expectations clear to Littleproud.
Labor Seizes the Moment
The government moved quickly to capitalise on the Coalition’s turmoil, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers declaring the Coalition was “collapsing.”“I think whatever the Nationals decide shortly, it’s become very clear, the Coalition is a smoking ruin,” Chalmers told ABC Radio National Breakfast.
Chalmers said the opposition was “divided, divisive and dysfunctional,” adding that they “can’t stand each other, they can’t work together.”
“I think Sussan Ley’s obviously on borrowed time, but to be fair to her, all of the alternatives to Sussan Ley in the Coalition are worse,” he said.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson praised Nationals MPs who opposed the bill but said there were not active plans to recruit them.
“I won’t be offering anything, but good on them and I do congratulate them in standing the ground and voting against the laws along with One Nation,” she told Sky News Australia.
