Australian news and politics live updates: National Party splits with Libs, ending Coalition

Former Victoria Liberal president Micheal Kroger has been the latest to question why the National Party were so swift to walk away from the Coalition agreement.

Mr Kroger acknowledged the historic break-up of the Coalition after nearly 80 years but accused the party of being hasty in its call.

“I just think it’s a bit surprising that (the Nationals) would do this so quickly. I’m not sure what the hurry is to make this decision,” he told Sky News.

“I mean, this Coalition dates back … more than 100 years ago. I just wonder what the hurry was.

“It’s only two weeks since the Federal election. We know, Sussan Ley has had the great tragedy with her mother passing away.

“And I just wonder why the National Party were in such a hurry.

“Obviously, there are reasons for this but I would have thought the better course of action would be to stick with the Coalition that’s served Australia well and work through the policy differences over the next few months.

“I’m not sure why it’s necessary to have a breach at this time.”

Liberal leader Sussan Ley was alerted just 30 minutes prior that the Coalition was splitting.

The Australian reports that this was despite the Nationals being told that key policy demands would likely all be agreed to by the Liberals.

Ms Ley could not agree to the Nationals’ leaders demands that his shadow cabinet ministers be granted the right to a free vote and oppose the Liberals on issues including net zero emissions by 2050.

It was reported that Mr Littleproud had been assured that that while the Liberals would conduct a review, it was likely there would be no major splits between the parties on nuclear energy, divestiture laws, the $20bn regional future fund and regional communications.

It’s the political story of the day - the Nats sensationally splitting from the Libs after so many decades together.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has pointed to a breakdown in negotiations with Liberal Leader Sussan Ley over nuclear, divestuture powers, a Regional Australia Future Fund, and rural and regional mobile phone coverage.

It comes after a disastrous Federal election, leaving both parties with a lot of soul searching to do.

Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan has defended leader David Littleproud for axing ties with the Liberals just a week after Sussan Ley became the embattled party’s leader.

Speaking on Sky after Mr Littleproud announced the split on Tuesday in Canberra, Mr Hogan expressed his confidence the parties would unite again but said the Nationals fractured from the Liberals because key policies weren’t assured.

Asked if the party had been impatient, Mr Hogan said it was the Liberals who set the short timeframe for the Coalition agreement.

“I wasn’t involved in all these conversations but the timeline initially was put on us by the Liberals,” he said.

“The timeline was, ‘We want you to sign up to a Coalition agreement by the weekend’.

“And we said, ‘Well, give us a bit of time because we’re going to have to go through our party room process’.

“We actually then took our foot off the pedal over the weekend, out of respect for Sussan (after her mother passed away) as well. So part of the timeline was their timeline.”

Mr Hogan noted Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s deflection to the Liberal Party had been “disappointing” but ultimately it was the policy positions that pushed the party to cut ties.

New Greens leader Larissa Waters says the minor party will continue to push to lower the threshold of Labor’s super tax plan to $2 million.

She said the party had been engaged in “constructive talks for quite some time” and would continue to talk with the Government about a pathway for the legislation through the Senate.

With the Coalition staunchly opposed to the taxing of unrealised gains, Labor could pass the legislation with just the Greens in the new-look Parliament.

“We think maybe that threshold could be a bit lower because it is important that we have a good revenue base to fund things like hospitals and schools. And so we’ll continue those talks,” she said in a breakfast television appearance.

David Littleproud believes that nuclear must be part of the energy mix and regional communities carry the burden of the renewable transition.

He said families and the landscape were being “torn apart” by renewable infrastructure.

He said the nation needed to be “pragmatic” about energy policy, which has long divided the Liberal and Nationals party rooms.

“They have lost their social licence renewables, tearing up our landscape, tearing up our landscape, tearing up your food security and tearing families apart,” he said.

“Some get turbines, or transmission lines and I have seen families torn apart from that.

“We live with the consequence of that.”

Australia has joined 22 other countries in demanding Israel fully resume humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza, and accused Israel of politicising the delivery of essentials to Palestinian civilians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel would allow some aid to enter Gaza following a two-month blockade but international aid organisations have warned it won’t be enough to meet the needs of the two million Palestinians living in the besieged enclave, and would also risk the lives of humanitarian workers.

It comes as Mr Netanyahu ordered the IDF to intensify ground operations and said Israel would take full control of the strip.

A journalist asks the Nationals leader if nuclear is the right policy to stick with given the election result, saying Australia “voted against” nuclear energy.

“That is a brave assessment to say they voted against nuclear energy,” he said.

“I think they got a very good s$600 billion scare campaign.

“I don’t think that was the reason. It was more about a scare campaign on nuclear and Medicare. It was about work from home. We saw that in regional electorates where we copped a lot of pain because of that. Have to be honest.

“You cannot put your head in the sand and say it was a great campaign, it was not. The numbers show that. You have to have the courage to look people in the eye and say we have got that wrong and not do that again.”

“Everything is possible. When you have commitment and leadership from both Sussan and I committed to one another, about how we can move forward and how we can get to a position where we come back together.

“That commitment is the foundation stone for us to rebuild from. This will give the air to the space the Liberals need.

“If they don’t have that, if they don’t identify who they are, none of us win.

“This is a great thing for our democracy we can do this. This is not anything personal. This is principle.”

“I had a meeting with Sussan Ley half an hour ago,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The dignity she showed with how she took this and see as a way forward is reaffirming that this is an opportunity to reset ourselves and do that and an environment where we can.

“I think that is important. There is no animosity, no angst, no heat. It is predicated on respect and understanding and that this and we will go forward.”

The Nationals leader spent the first few minutes of his speech talking about how he had been respectful of the process fitting in with Ms Ley after her mother died in recent days.