Is this it? Are we really splitting up? How about we make it a trial separation? You take time out to think about what matters to you and I’ll go stay with Gina for a while.
David Littleproud, the leader of the Nationals, today he goes down in history as the mouse that roared, the tail that no longer wags in sync with the Liberal dog. The mighty warrior Nat, heading out in his ute. This has only happened only twice before – the last back in the late 1980s when the Queensland National, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and his malevolent hillbilly antics got too much for the Liberals and they parted ways. It turned out to be temporary.
This time the Nationals are doing the leaving, because the Liberals are – how to put it? – a bunch of losers who don’t even know who they are. These things happen in a marriage of course. It’s meant to be forever but it is frankly a strain when one partner is no longer pulling their weight. Specifically the Nationals wanted commitments on divestiture powers, nuclear energy, telecommunications and – of course – a special $20 billion fund for the bush. These are all theoretical of course. Neither party is in any position to make these dreams real.
The great split – but for how long?
There is one immediate, sad consequence of the Great Split of 25: we lose a truly great comedy duo. Think of the laughs we got from Barnaby Joyce and all the way back to Doug Anthony and his legendary combover, trotted out at Christmas time as he played PM for the holiday period while. The Nationals will still be with us but performing alone as a regional act will not be quite the same.
Indeed it is David Littleproud who has delivered the funniest line of the post-election season so far, declaring that the principle of the Nationals would be to act alone first. “What we have got to is a position is that the National party will sit alone on a principle basis,” he announced this morning, setting the terms of the post-nup breakup. Principle? Nationals? And here we were thinking their guiding principle was to special plead and pork-barrel their way into the hearts of their electorates. That was certainly the hallmark of their performance in the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison era of government.
The ultimate insult in this separation is that it is the Nationals who claim the Liberals have lost their way. This takes some gall. The party of farmers are now the leading advocates of nuclear energy, in the thrall of Gina Rinehart. Plenty of farmers know all about the impact of climate change. The National party ignores it or denies it altogether. The Nationals are secure in their identity but any therapist worth their salt would surely be asking if they shouldn’t take a closer look at themselves and their own life journey.
Close the blinds
Which brings us to the abandoned partner, the very damaged Liberals who are now split, splintered and spat out into a sobbing wreck. What the heck would a therapist make of them? Yes, I know you were once mighty but you have to accept that times have changed. This happens to all of us as we get older. People start ignoring us. We struggle for relevance. We lapse into reveries of past glories. We think we are entitled to the luxuries of life, as by right. So what we know is that the heiress to the Liberal shambles, Sussan Ley, needs to heal the divisions within. David has given Sussan that space now. Let’s see what she does with it.
Sussan Ley has been left to deal with several concurrent crises, but she may indeed find it easier to do so without having to accommodate the Drizabones from the bush. First, the Liberals have to deliver again on the city vote. They also have to acquaint themselves with what’s been going on out there in the land beyond the party, its donors and the shrill urgers of Sky News, bent on halting all change in its tracks.
The Libs at war
The Climate wars. The energy wars. The gender wars. Sussan Ley will have the time to reflect. Yesterday she wrote a rah-rah piece for The Australian replete with sporting analogies about never giving up. Here’s a taster: “If you are one of the millions of dedicated footy fans, if you have barracked for one of our incredible Olympians or if you have been in a stadium cheering on the mighty Tillies, you will know you can’t always be on the winning side. As a Sydney Swans supporter I know after the loss of a grand final, when you get towelled up you don’t give up,”
The near thousand word piece was a master class in saying nothing definite, beyond noble aims of having the Liberal party reflect the reality of modern Australia. But it’s all the Liberal party has now. An empty horizon and a cold space in the bed where its partner used to be.
What’s the bet that the hard right wing will be back in charge, with Angus Taylor and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price filling the bill as perfect partners for a reunited Coalition? It is, after all, the marriage made in heaven for the far right conservatives, the final nail in the coffin of the old Liberal party… and a boon for Anthony Albanese who may just govern forever.
I love the line: “David Littleproud, the leader of the Nationals, bears a name which somehow captures his political achievements, or lack thereof.” Says it all!
I’m left wondering where this leaves Queensland’s peculiar monster, the two-headed beast called LNP. Both Spud and Littleprick ran with LNP branding on their Federal election posters, yet they magically split into two separate entities like a level boss from a 1990s platformer as soon as they hit Canberra. Whither now?
This is a very good question which I didn’t have space to address.
I’m left leaning, but I feel very sorry for Ley. She’s going to get a lot of heckling and bullying from both the Libs and the Nats. Same as when Gillard was leader. When will both men and women learn to behave themselves, and give women a go? It appears that Littleproud has already intimated that Ley’s the cause of the breakup.
I’ll look forward to that article
The Nats dissolving the coalition even before the last votes are counted is a ruthless tactic with a subtext narrative that goes along the lines of, “It isn’t us it’s them, they lost the election; we know you can not stand them … nor can we”.
On the up side for Ley and co the change allows them to rebrand from the now toxic Liberal Party.
The Leftovers have decomposed into The Scraps.
#thescraps
I had the same question in mind. Would love you to fill us in soonish…
OK.. according to this report there will be no impact on the 16 LNP seats from Queensland – 10 sit with the Libs party room and 6 with the Nats:
“Former state Labor minister and parliamentary Speaker John Mickel, now a professor of politics at Queensland University of Technology, said he did not expect the federal split to have an impact on the LNP.”
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/coalition-s-federal-split-to-have-no-bearing-on-queensland-s-lnp-springborg/ar-AA1F6hgD?ocid=BingNewsSerp
It is so tacky and a dog act by Littleproud. To top it off he made it gendered by likening it to a trial separation. He expects Sussan Ley to come crawling back and giving in to his demands. More often the woman will stand her ground and outmanoeuvre the cad of a partner. Women of Australia will rally behind her even those who were lukewarm. Any early treachery will be repaid by the electorate.
Looking at the numbers she wins. Shadow Ministries that can be allocated strategically within the Liberals will be a powerful tool. These members will be the go to for the media and David Littleproud will have Matt Canavan hogging the limelight for the Nationals. Meantime the Liberals can take time to address the very real problems created by the arrogant Nationals in the past.
She has shown herself to be steely despite her personal circumstances and showed that the Liberals are back in charge and no longer kowtowing to people who while saving their positions have done great damage to the Liberals.
That Littleproud couldn’t wait until after her mother’s funeral before making ultimatums shows a lack of decency and makes one wonder what was involved in previous agreements.
Ley’s exploitation for political purposes of her mother’s passing needs to be note. As is her cry of ‘poor me’. These are just tactics to gain public support
I was under the impression that people of all genders could get married and seperated or divorced.
Not a trivial question either. With 16 MPs and 4 senators the Queensland LNP is a substantial chunk of the coalition. If there is a split based on policy differences, does that mean many conservative voters will end up with a member with a different agenda to the one they went to the election with? And exactly which members are affiliated with which party? It’s never made clear during elections and I bet most consistuents couldn’t identify who is who. The whole things smacks of deliberate deception.
The question is all the more interesting because Littleproud himself is an LNP MP.
The LNP IS the majority Queensland State government, so they can’t really disband that.
But it does beg the question at federal level. For example, there are only LNP branches that fundraise and volunteer during elections. Will the branches have to split? Will Liberal candidates and Nationals candidates vie for the same federal sears in Queensland
There’s little to be proud about David
I made a comment to that effect quite some time ago about how his surname represented who he was and is.
Nothing to be proud about at all, and a lot of reflecting needed by this person if he is indeed to be proud about his legacy in any way.
I really stopped reading at the point David had a cheap shot at Littleproud’s name. Every second surname is vulnerable in this way. Hardaker? Or Wise? Feel free to have some fun with that.
Fair enough. I’ve amended the copy.
Rodney, I agree — though I did keep reading, didn’t notice any more personal shots about names. I notice another reader commented that he enjoyed that shot.
Haha from the Opposition who called Anthony Albanese all sorts of names!
LNP is a disaster. I do not know how members of it can now sit in the formal opposition but belong to a Party that has left the Coalition. I wouldn’t trust those members one little bit!
There is a lot written about the impact of a surname on a persons life choices and directions taken for their lives. I see no problem with naming it.
Yes!
What else does anyone expect? For whatever reason, the regional voters are mostly rusted on.
Nothing chastens a political party like the loss of a previously safe seat.
I know a few regional voters. Their main gripe is a lack of choice at election time. It would be interesting to hear the thoughts of any regional voters that might be on this chat.
I live in a regional seat where the National again kiat scraped on against a teal ish and very good local independent with a good ground game. I think its demographics and the social network glue on the bush. This seat has compared with the national average an older , whiter, less educated and less well off demographic, As who you vote for at 20 is relatively locked in longterm ( and often influenced by who your parents support) then the possibility for change is reduced. I suspect the Nats probably hold nearly all those seats in Australia. Natural demographic change might dilute that picture along with migration into the seat of more progressive voters, but the social network in which Nats are so embedded works the opposite way. There is a long history of vulnerable people voting against their best interests. Well known to those that benefit from this.
Yes your last paragraph nailed it ( and great break up references in the rest of the piece!). In a few months when the senate changes, Anus Taylor and Jacinta-for-PM will ride in on their clapped out steeds and the Nats will love them again. Happily never after.
History repeats itself. Turnbull got in, tried to move back to the sensible centre but Abbott wasn’t having any of it. Change the name to Ley and Taylor/Price. Oh and Sussan if you want the respect of the electorate (and to keep your job), just boot Price out. She will undermine you via Murdoch at every opportunity
Sussan has an impossible task with things stacked against her.
Gina is the puppet master and the Nationals and the hard right of the Liberals are the willing puppets.
It is not beyond the realm of possibilities this is just step 1 of Gina’s plan. Jacinta Price now in the Liberals to white ant from the inside.
So either the Angus/Jacinta ticket gets up in the near future, or if they repeatedly fail to get the leadership, the hard right of the Liberals splinter and join the National party.
It is long odds, but I would have a chuckle that after the dust settles, and a few years down the track, we have a new coalition arrangement – Labor and a smaller, but moderate, (and seeking revenge) new Liberal party.
Hey Wayne, your final paragraph is a genuinely new and interesting thought – thanks!
Given where the Neolaboral Political Party is currently headed under Albanese, this is not as outlandish as it sounds at first hearing.
In some ays, the community independents are now the fledgling opposition.
They resemble the moderate, educated ‘wets’, who were connected to their electorates that Howard pushed out of the Liberal Party 30 years ago, in favour of the likes of Abbott, Morrison and Dutton.
You reap what you sow, John Winston Howard -I’m glad you lived long enough to witness your legacy.
Thar is the absolute truth. Eventually Howard’s electorate dumped him (as sitting PM), my electorate. But by then the damage had been well and truly done.
Howard and those following booted out the thinking, brainpower members of the Liberal Party, they really weren’t there much in the Nationals, and now many are rising up as the female independents. I see little capacity in the intellectual resources of either parties, just lots of noise promoted by Sky After Dark
Obviously sussan gets custody of Jacinta, but will David get access visits and if so, will they be supervised?
This is no trial separation,it’s going to be accusations and recriminations at twenty paces.Both sides are shit,one led by a galah, the other by a twit.As you intimate,the scene is set for Gus the Goose and the Vulture from the North.
I give flannel mouth about two months, tops.Who really cares?
Spot on with your last comment Harry Lime!
If this lasts until the next election won’t this mean lots of ‘three way contests’ – where libs and nats stand against each other? The end of the Nats perhaps?
The Nationals claim to represent the 30% living outside capital cities. Let’s say a quarter of those are not of voting age, leaving 22.5% of the population. They got 7.5% of the vote. So they are reaping. 1 in 3 of their claimed base. And none of the city folk. Talk about a rump.
Three way “contests” aren’t contests at all.
The NATs and LIBs campaign on the same thought bubble/wishlist and prefernce one another ushering votes into the Conservative election prospects.
Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of bastards, and the statement is not quite true. The coalition did break up for about 18 month after the 1972 defeat, only coming together again for the 1974 election, which they lost narrowly anyway.
What you don’t mention. David, is that the Nats will no longer be shadow ministers, not entitled to the extra coin that goes with it. I can think of a couple of money hungry Nats who will be unchuffed.
David you are a wordsmith, thank you for being there. Love having you in the chair/house with all that is happening. Cheers, xoxo.
So kind. Thank you Marilyn. Very grateful for your comments and that you keep reading! Cheers, David
“malevolent hillbilly antics” is as apt today to describe the Nationals as it was for Joh’s mob back in the day.
Perhaps the strong opposition we need will be the independents as the LNP has achieved irrelevance by moving to the right in a conservative country.
A lot of knowledgeable comments, however what does not escape me is the The Liberal Party has never been able to govern in its own right.
It needed the seats of the risible Nationals who are still wandering around in the land of the dinosaurs dragging behind it irrelevant police, and represents a contingent that are wedded to the biggest issue of our times, climate change and the fact that it still continues with massive land clearing, fracking and degrading underground water, which has also been diminished at a rapid rate.
There are also the issues that both Queensland and the Northern Territory continue to persue at great cost to the nation and its indigenous people which are:
“Right now, Liberal-led governments in Queensland and the Northern Territory are pushing through decisions that put Country, water and communities at risk.
In Brisbane, Premier David Crisafulli is overriding heritage protections to build an Olympic stadium while legal funding that enables everyday people to challenge harmful developments has just been cut.1,2 In the NT, the government has passed changes to sacred sites legislation without proper consultation with Traditional Owners.3 This came just after the approval of a massive water licence to grow cotton, right next to sacred aquifers.4”
None of these people, including Albanese and his new Environment Minister Murray Watt can be trusted, that plainly evident.
Peter Hartcher summed it up best in his article today = ” The split of the Nationals and Liberals looks a lot like two turkeys voting for Christmas.”
When you have Matt Canavan and Auntie-Tom Jacinta Price assuming prominent roles in the two parties and the Nats continuing to champion Nuclear Power, you know there is no hope for them.
The three great lies of politics.
I’m 110% behind my leader.
I need to spend more time with my family.
It’s a matter of principle.
The National Party has gone with number three this time around.
As Jim Chalmers put it; the Coalition is a smoking ruin. Did anyone else hear the ghost of Paul Keating?
But really, does it matter. The Liberal pearl clutchers have long forgotten the battlers. They’re now in the Labor camp. The progressives and the professionals vote independent in the capitals so we now have the Nats and the Libs in a regional turf war. Just one party will walk from that scrap. The only thing then to be decided is what to call the survivor.
What’s the betting on the New Liberal National Party?
Next election ” do nothing” labour will be rejected by the increasingly young electorate
Regarding the Nats electorate we weirdly find ourselves living in Joyce’s New England. We lived in Canberra for 24 years where education per capita must be the highest in Australia. Here there are many residents who finished school education aged 13 or thereabouts. Joyce’s news brochures are rants against Rebewable Energy and that he is “getting things done”. I loved your take on the Nats – wish I could have written it myself – not least because some of them (a conga line) have reaped considerable personal wealth through corruption of projects they were responsible for. The Shovel wrote about this just last week. Let’s hear about corruption? More truth not less. Thank you David Hardaker.