For the second time in eight months, the Federal Liberal National Coalition has split up.
On Thursday morning, Nationals leader David Littleproud said: “We cannot be part of a Shadow Ministry under [Liberal leader] Sussan Ley... We will move on and we will get on with the job”.
Littleproud and Ley’s accounts of the dispute that led to the split differ, but it is clear it centres on the Government’s hate speech bill.
Here’s what we know.
Context
The Coalition is a formal, long-standing alliance between the Liberal and National parties.
A Cabinet is a small group of senior ministers who have responsibility over certain areas of government.
The Opposition has a Shadow Cabinet, with shadow ministers for each government portfolio, led by Sussan Ley.
Members of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet are bound by ‘solidarity’: they must not publicly disagree with party decisions.
New legislation
Following the Bondi terrorist attack in December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recalled Parliament to debate changes to hate speech and gun laws.
The Government originally pitched one bill covering both topics but split it to ensure both elements passed.
The Labor Government has a majority in the House of Representatives, but needs support from either the Opposition or the Greens to pass its bills in the Senate.
The Greens supported the gun reform bill, while the Liberals supported the hate speech bill.
Hate speech
The Nationals diverged from the Liberals on the hate speech bill.
In internal meetings, they raised concerns about a new national framework that will allow the Government to formally list “prohibited hate groups,” similar to how terrorist organisations are listed.
Ley said on Wednesday morning that before the bill was presented to Parliament, the Coalition had worked with the Government to “narrow the scope” to “deal with... antisemitism and tackle radical Islamist extremism”.
In the House of Representatives, one Nationals MP (former leader Michael McCormack) voted in favour of the bill, while the rest of the party abstained.
In the Senate, the Nationals proposed a series of amendments to the hate speech bill.
When these amendments failed, all four Nationals Senators voted against the bill, including Shadow Ministers Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald, and Ross Cadell.
(McDonald is in Queensland’s combined Liberal National Party, and chooses to sit with the Nationals).
Shadow cabinet
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your details:
The Nationals Senators who voted against the bill went against the Coalition’s agreed Shadow Cabinet ‘solidarity’.
During the last Coalition split in May 2025, Ley said the Nationals had pushed to scrap solidarity in order to speak freely. McKenzie told the ABC this was not true.
When they reunited, both Nationals and Liberals agreed to cabinet solidarity. Ley’s Cabinet was made up of both Liberals and Nationals.
On Wednesday afternoon, McKenzie, McDonald, and Cadell submitted their resignations from the Shadow Cabinet, which Ley accepted.
In a statement, Ley said: “Shadow Cabinet solidarity is not optional. It is the foundation of serious opposition and credible government.”
She said she had told Littleproud several times on Tuesday “that members of the Shadow Cabinet could not vote against the Shadow Cabinet position.”
Split
Following Ley’s statement on Wednesday, the Nationals held a party meeting, where they decided they would all leave the Shadow Cabinet.
Ley released a statement on Wednesday night, saying: “No permanent changes will be made to the Shadow Ministry at this time, giving the National Party time to reconsider these offers of resignation.”
Then, on Thursday morning, Littleproud held a press conference to announce the Nationals were walking away from the Coalition for the second time in eight months.
Reasons
At the press conference, Littleproud said the Shadow Cabinet had met on Sunday to discuss the bills.
He said the Nationals raised concerns about the creation of a list of hate organisations, suggesting it could have “unintended consequences that limit the rights and freedom of speech of everyday Australians and the Jewish community”.
Littleproud said the Nationals told the meeting they wanted to propose amendments to this bill to limit these consequences, and if they failed, that they would not vote for the bill.
He added that the Nationals had been developing these amendments over Monday and Tuesday. Littleproud claims Ley told him to raise the amendments, and “consider voting a different way,” if they failed.
When they failed in the Senate, the Nationals voted against the bill “as the will of the National Party party room”.
He said it was not “appropriate” that Ley accepted the Shadow Cabinet resignations from within his party.
Littleproud largely blamed the Government for the situation, calling it a rushed process, despite Coalition calls for Parliament to be recalled before Christmas.
What now?
Neither Ley nor Albanese have made a formal comment on the Nationals’ departure, only making statements about the National Day of Mourning for the victims of the Bondi attack.
Littleproud left the door open for a possible reunion, but said the Nationals ”cannot be part of a Shadow Ministry under Sussan Ley.”
The Sydney Morning Herald reports a challenge to Ley’s leadership is on the cards, but may not occur until next month when Parliament formally returns for the year.
