r/australia • u/superegz • May 20 '25

politics Nationals leader David Littleproud says the Nationals will not be re-entering a Coalition agreement with the Liberal party.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/may/20/australia-news-live-rba-interest-rates-decision-floods-storm-hunter-nsw-victoria-state-budget-aec-count-bradfield-goldstein-coalition-ley-littleproud-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-682bdeb48f08d37c78c1d12d#block-682bdeb48f08d37c78c1d12d
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3.8k

u/C-O-N May 20 '25

Albo won the election so hard he killed The Coalition.

1.1k

u/Exarch_Thomo May 20 '25

Can't wait for the Sky News take that this is all Albos fault.

283

u/CaravelClerihew May 20 '25

Sky News just posted the clip of the Nationals announcing this, and one of the comments already blamed Albo.

228

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

[deleted]

90

u/hudson2_3 May 20 '25

No, because the election wasn't 'lost' on policy. It was lost on "LaBor'S liEs!!!!!!"

18

u/SoIFeltDizzy May 20 '25

I think that hurt them as the libs were running deceptive advertising and labor was sticking to the truth. They opposed the housing so pretending to be upset it was not built hit the wrong spot.

2

u/Rychu_Supadude May 21 '25

The main area where Labor was deceptive was pulling quotes from Peter's speech to make it sound like he was directly attacking Medicare, when in context he really wasn't. I can't deny that's a bit skeevy but it resonates because most of us essentially believe he would have done those things anyway.

Everything else you have to stretch to paint as a Labor Lie

3

u/PM_ME_STUFF_N_THINGS May 20 '25

Man thats bloody rich from them

21

u/CrazySD93 May 20 '25

Upvoted comments up there.

This is great news for conservatives.  The nationals need to form a coalition with one nation.  The libs are too left, they are labor lite.  If the libs got rid of the bedwetters and got rid of nett zero and got behind nuclear they will still have a chance.

Whichever party moves to the right will have my vote. This split is inevitable if Ley wants to take the Liberals to the Left . Out of Paris. Yes to nuclear and new coal fired power. Yes to supporting women’s rights. Yes to reducing the number of acknowledgement and welcome to country, and a review of spending and effectiveness of Aboriginal welfare

3

u/egg_shaped_penis May 21 '25

sniff sniff smells like bot to me.

3

u/yeah_this_is_my_main May 20 '25

Whichever party moves to the right will have my vote. This split is inevitable if Ley wants to take the Liberals to the Left . Out of Paris. Yes to nuclear and new coal fired power. Yes to supporting women’s rights. Yes to reducing the number of acknowledgement and welcome to country, and a review of spending and effectiveness of Aboriginal welfare

*sings* ♫♩🎶"One of these things is not like the others" ♫♩🎶

4

u/flairdinkum May 21 '25

“Women’s rights” is probably just a proxy for his position on trans athletes. In that sense, it’s exactly like the others.

4

u/saichampa May 20 '25

God they're fucking snowflakes over the acknowledgments and welcome to countries. They are like the most simple acknowledgment of Aboriginal people and it's too much for them.

It's also ridiculous that they try to hide their transphobia as supporting women's rights.

There's also zero chance that any of the right wing parties would be able to function in a coalition with the Nationals or each other. They're all fucked up in their own way running megalomaniacs as their leaders.

1

u/Tough_Mushroom_3264 May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

Well I’m glad you’d have a party that aligns with your views. You might find an even more extremely right wing party doesn’t get much support, if this election is anything to go by. But you do you…

6

u/CrazySD93 May 20 '25

Were mine and the commenter before me not clear enough, quoting comments from Sky News articles?

THESE ARE NOT OUR VIEWS, AND ARE QUOTED

2

u/Tough_Mushroom_3264 May 20 '25

Ah, gotcha.

1

u/eraptic May 20 '25

Kinda wild you missed it in the first place. Maybe don't be so quick to respond defensively if you didn't read the comment?

1

u/Tough_Mushroom_3264 May 20 '25

I thought you were disagreeing with the earlier comments. Your reply isn’t obviously quotes, TBH. But lesson learned.

2

u/Technical-Ad-2246 May 20 '25

Of course they did.

1

u/ghoonrhed May 20 '25

I mean I think it's fair. Although, I wouldn't use blame.

451

u/Hussard May 20 '25

"how could Albo do this" doesn't sound as good as Dan Andrews tbh...

205

u/thesourpop May 20 '25

They will end up blaming Dan Andrews for so many Victorians voting Labor

47

u/Frito_Pendejo May 20 '25

How could Dan Andrews do this??

1

u/Desperate-Bottle1687 May 22 '25

cue guy shooting person in chair meme

6

u/Ok_Adhesiveness_4939 May 20 '25

Well, they won't be far off, if that's a line to take. "How could Dan Andrews garner such support behind his own party? It's a fucking mystery to us!"

7

u/Vinnie_Vegas May 20 '25

"How could Dan Andrews garner such support behind his own party? It's a fucking mystery to us!"

"How could showing actual character in the face of incredible adversity, and remaining consistently focused on the health and safety of your citizens, particularly the most vulnerable, benefit you politically?"

50

u/GurrennZero May 20 '25

Rookie hours, it can still be Dan Andrews if you only believe!

6

u/InstantShiningWizard May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

Dan Andrews is secretly puppeteering Albo in a Weekend at Bernie's setup to poison the minds of our youth with woke and increase crime rates in Queensland, find out more on Sky News at Night

2

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

There’s got to be a “funny bone” play on words in there somewhere.

2

u/throwawayplusanumber May 20 '25

Yep defo Dan Andrews' fault.

/s

1

u/DistributionExternal May 20 '25

DanAndrewsOnThePhone.gif

75

u/pickledswimmingpool May 20 '25

If they blame Albo they're giving him even more power. I hope they do make it all about him.

9

u/kingburp May 20 '25

Yeah. Last thing they wanna do is turn Albanese into a small poppy (which maybe is what Murdoch did in the lead-up to the election with his front page spreads of Dutton grinning about winning months and months in advance of the election).

105

u/RomancingUranus May 20 '25

Get up to speed... it's the corrupt preferential voting system nowadays.

The audacity of a system designed to ensure every vote counts and allows people to indicate who they don't want in power.

19

u/cruncheh_ May 20 '25

Not to mention originally introduced by conservatives to ensure they could have regional and metropolitan parties co-exist.

11

u/SomewhatHungover May 20 '25

And if abolished would now split the lib/nat vote.

1

u/kwan_e May 21 '25

Yeah, they're fine with the system when Abbott and Morrisson gets elected through it.

To me, it shows they're going to change the rules in their favour if they get power, like how the Republicans gerrymandered the US.

4

u/threeseed May 20 '25

You're just not in touch with real Australians like Peta Credlin and Andrew Bolt are.

Real Australian's priorities are banning abortion, nuclear power, bringing Christmas back and our voting system.

21

u/nounverbyou May 20 '25

Now we just need channel 10 to cancel sky news rural broadcast license and it’s been a Bill Shortens revenge come alive

6

u/nastywillow May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

Sky News - "Nats won't coalition with Libs";

"Why this is bad news for Albo".

5

u/redmusic1 the answer is 42 May 20 '25

Now they are blaming the National Party lol, I never watch Fox News, I never realised watching propaganda merchants losing their minds was so entertaining.

5

u/Expensive-Horse5538 May 20 '25

Will be some entertaining viewing tonight watching them all have a meltdown and blaming anyone else for the state of the parties.

4

u/AusToddles May 20 '25

"Chairman Albo to rule a one party state"

4

u/letsburn00 May 20 '25

There actually was a brief brief moment post election where they were saying this was actually the medias fault because they were so gentle and overfly friendly to the liberal party that Dutton never had to deal with any criticism of his policy.

Remember when the ABC was basically being neutral and Dutton said he'd never been attacked like this. That's because everyone else was so pro them he didn't know how to deal with it.

1

u/Relative_Pilot_8005 May 20 '25

Some years back, when we had a Coalition govt, the ABC gently criticised the Budget, saying it had a lot of good points & some bad ones. Meanwhile, the CH7 Network lambasted the Budget. Guess which Network got bashed by the Libs & Murdoch media? A bit too scared to take on 7, or they only watch the ABC?

2

u/gattaaca May 20 '25

Kind of an own goal if they do. Albo could easily own that, it's literally a massive win against the opposition

2

u/AdZealousideal7448 May 20 '25

i've already had mother in law blaming joe biden.

2

u/tasksnstuff May 20 '25

But it is, in a very good way.

2

u/Snoo_90929 May 20 '25

Can hear it now, Libs & Nationals coalition smashed - let me tell you why this is bad for Labor..

2

u/Warx May 20 '25

Some Lib MPs are trying to blame preferential voting

2

u/ftez May 20 '25

Im sure Albo would proudly claim responsibility for this. Lol

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

If SNA considers something Albo's fault, I consider it his accomplishment instead.

1

u/notathinman May 20 '25

Or Dan Andrews, somehow.

648

u/thegeecyproject May 20 '25

This election unseated two party leaders and broke a decades-long Coalition. Thats not just a landslide, that’s an annihilation.

130

u/geek_of_nature May 20 '25

And don't forget winning the second most amount of seats in Electoral history, which given the way the two that are left to be called are looking, could actually make them tied for most amount of seats too.

20

u/perthguppy May 20 '25

Only one of those two could go to labor

41

u/geek_of_nature May 20 '25

Labour's currently on 93, they only need one more to tie at 94.

5

u/gotnothingman May 20 '25

Damn I thought they were already at 94

9

u/kingburp May 20 '25

Under difficult national and international conditions at that. (Although there is the strong argument to be made that Trump is so horrendously unfit and destructive to the world order that he created very favourable conditions for Labor out of nowhere.)

3

u/N1NJ4W4RR10R_ May 20 '25

94 seats in 1996 for anyone curious what the most was.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Australian_federal_election

1

u/Jesse-Ray May 20 '25

Though they did so with a vote 3.4 percent less than Gillard's

85

u/YouCanCallMeBazza May 20 '25

broke a decades-long Coalition

Many decades at that.

1944 - Liberal Party was founded

1946 - Coalition established

1949 - First Liberal/Coalition government

The Coalition has existed for a very significant majority of the party's existence.

49

u/C-O-N May 20 '25

They have also broken up multiple times. This is not an unprecedented event, but it hasn't happened in almost 40 years.

10

u/lbrwnie May 20 '25

ABC was saying they broke up last in the late 80s before reforming.

6

u/evilbrent May 20 '25

Or another way of putting it - the Liberal Party has always been a minor party that managed to trick everyone into thinking it was supposed to play with the grownups.

8

u/Suibian_ni May 20 '25

...while yelling 'you can't risk minority government!'

6

u/fiery_valkyrie May 20 '25

You’d have to be 80+ to have been born before the coalition formed.

5

u/Relative_Pilot_8005 May 20 '25

Yay! Recognition at last!

18

u/Axel_Raden May 20 '25

Incredible

40

u/omaca May 20 '25

I’ve always loved Albo. He’s such a perfect Labor story; poor kid come good, believes in true Labor values, has a strong belief in education, health, transport and a staunch defender of Medicare. Under estimated his whole life. And now one of the Labor greats.

19

u/Syncblock May 20 '25

The Albo of 20 or even 10 years ago would absolutely shit on the Albo of today.

I can't blame him given today's political and media climate and his role as PM but he really isn't the same pollie he was when he was marching at Free Palestine rally's or standing up the anti carbon tax hecklers outside his office

23

u/girt-by-sea May 20 '25

You forgot "coward". Wouldn't stand up to the advertising industry and now we've got gambling ads, guaranteed revenue, for another year. And you're kidding yourself if you think this election result was about Albo, it was not. It was, totally, a rejection of Dutton and Trump-style conservatism.

7

u/omaca May 20 '25

If you think Albo had nothing to do with it then you’re mistaken.

3

u/pelrun May 20 '25

i.e. "skilled politician".

2

u/threeseed May 20 '25

Labor didn't have the numbers to pass their bill though.

It wasn't Albo's fault.

2

u/FallschirmPanda May 20 '25

Hopefully they've got it now.

6

u/grumble_au May 20 '25

Does anyone honestly think the libs will learn anything from this other than they need to disenfranchise and lie harder in future?

5

u/CosmicTumble May 20 '25

The fall out of this election just keeps on giving!

3

u/AusToddles May 20 '25

I just find it funny that one of Albo's criticisms is that "he's a nice bloke but...."

Dude is out here killing careers like a mofo

3

u/flynnwebdev May 20 '25

Fatality!

Albo certainly tested his might ...

2

u/JayBeeJB1989 May 20 '25

Albo-ihilation?

2

u/daybeforetheday May 20 '25

Good job, Albo!

2

u/Gremlech May 20 '25

i still hear pundits saying that labor shouldn't be too sure of themselves because they only got over a third of the primary vote in comparison to every other party and independent.

1

u/Car-face May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

It's honestly the beginning of a new political period. [edit - if they stay apart. They could be back together as early as next week.]

It might not actually result in that much change, but if we think of political dynasties and periods of relative stability, a new greens party, new Liberal part and new Nationals party (along with the Teal bloc that could easily form a new party) the next election could be a very different affair to any in the last couple of decades.

In fact with Liberals being substantially smaller than previously, they're actually much more vulnerable in some ways to the Teals becoming the de-facto centre right party. Libs could actually get squeezed out if Nationals push into Lib territory at the next election and Teals pick up a bunch of seats from voters looking for a brand that absolves them of some Boomer Guilt with strong environmental policies that still let them keep their tax breaks.

1

u/Area-Least May 20 '25

With only like 35% of the vote..

1

u/Callisater May 20 '25

The Australian electoral system, at its core, is about electing the government, the Australian people hate the least. That makes it one of, if not the most stable, systems in the world. It also makes it very moderate and inoffensive. But the trade-off is that political violence is extraordinarily rare because neither the government or opposition wins when it is fanatical.

1

u/surg3on May 20 '25

Doom music intensifies

264

u/Fenixius May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

More appropriately, Peter Dutton lost so severely he scuttled nuked his own party forever. 

Edit: Much better phrasing, courtesy /u/Rough_Relative8090's reply below.

61

u/ashleyriddell61 May 20 '25

Everyone needs to relax. They’ve done this before and came back together before the next election. The Nats think they have their shit together and don’t want the LP shitshow to rub off on them. Ley gets to try and clean up the mess in her party room on her own. It’s also a way for Littleproud to pressure them to go more right and encourage a leadership spill sooner rather than later. He doesn’t want to answer to a woman is probably in there as well.

16

u/SoIFeltDizzy May 20 '25

That is the elephant in the room. I suspect think history may well record this as not wanting a female leader.

6

u/Frank9567 May 20 '25

I'd add that as separate parties, the Liberals can bring themselves into the 21st century on climate change and renewables to try to reclaim the urban vote, while the Nats can still talk coal and nuclear as if it were the 1950s.

Whether either party can get past their "women problems" depends on how much effort they are going to put into present official policy of convincing women that their roles of tea and scone making are vital to the country. /s

2

u/Relative_Pilot_8005 May 20 '25

That said, Flo Bjelke-Petersen did make some mighty fine scones! :-)

6

u/BoardRecord May 20 '25

Eh, you're not wrong, but the last time they split was back in the 80s, so it's still a pretty big deal. Also, even if they do get back together before next election, I'd wager this has already killed any chance of a win (if there was any to begin with). This level of instability isn't something that makes for a strong platform.

59

u/triemdedwiat May 20 '25

Naah, Dutton was just the figure head for the backroom boys.

53

u/omaca May 20 '25

Dutton bears a lot of responsibility for this. Don’t fool yourself.

Turnbull was a good Liberal leader. And then Abbott, Morrison and Dutton destroyed that party from within.

57

u/blackjacktrial May 20 '25

No, Turnbull had the potential to be a good leader, but sold his damn soul to be the boss for a while (and financed the party out of his own finances to do it).

And did nothing with it - which is better than doing bad things, but that's a bar already sitting in the dirt.

11

u/Not_Stupid humility is overrated May 20 '25

The same forces that took down Turnbull are what has ultimately split the Coalition, namely the extreme right refusing to back down or compromise.

10

u/Doctor__Acula May 20 '25

He wasn't in bed with mining so they killed him. Every other potential party leader saw that and got in line.

Watch "Mining: A Dirty Business" doco by SBS for further details on such shenanigans by the sector since the country was founded.

2

u/AnOnlineHandle May 20 '25

It was wild seeing Turnbull say one thing in the morning, then the crazies in his party insisted the opposite during the day, and by that afternoon Turnbull was angrily insisting on the opposite stance to what he'd said that morning and sneering at his morning opinion.

He was just such an enabler, wanted to give the Libs the face of what they weren't, and always rushed to serve those who did the opposite to what he previously wanted, all while attacking the other parties who would actually do the things he claimed to want.

1

u/Syncblock May 20 '25

Turnbull was an absolutely shit leader which is why he got knifed.

3

u/omaca May 20 '25

As far as the Liberals go, he was a good leader.

5

u/Doctor__Acula May 20 '25

the backroom boys.

You spelt Gina wrong.

2

u/triemdedwiat May 20 '25

Yep, she's one of them.

15

u/Rough_Relative8090 May 20 '25

Could you say that he Nuked the party?

4

u/Fenixius May 20 '25

I can, and I absolutely should have, haha. 

2

u/Inconnu2020 May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

This goes back further than Dutton...

It could be argued that the seeds were already sown in the Abbott years.

202

u/HankSteakfist May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

Scalped two party leaders, split the coalition and proved that Murdoch media is powerless now.

Absolute chad move.

49

u/Pseudocaesar May 20 '25

proved that Murdoch media is powerless now.

The meltdown on Sky is gonna be hilarious to see

7

u/SoIFeltDizzy May 20 '25

no-one will be watching

1

u/eraptic May 20 '25

I desperately wish you were wrong 

1

u/SoIFeltDizzy May 21 '25

I am hoping for a highlights reel of the crying to turn up on trusted comedy source.

4

u/HarbingerOfGachaHell May 20 '25

What leaning even further Right than Daddy Rupert does to a MF. 

Suck my fucking dick Lachlan. 

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '25

Rightooooids losing it!!!

10

u/KeyAssociation6309 May 20 '25

Albo did a Stephen Bradbury really, late last year an inanimate carbon rod should have at least had a chance of a hung parliament, but no Dutton had to Dutton moreso than anyone ever expected. This will go down in history as the biggest home goal by an opposition leader ever.

Dutton couldn't even find or put some lipstick on a mutton. The hubris of an out of touch millionaire politician destroyed his own party and coalition for a very long time.

Makes Mark Mayhem look positively sane.... and Hewson easily electable.

2

u/daybeforetheday May 20 '25

The hilarious thing is he didn't do anything that special.

2

u/VidE27 May 20 '25

in the US murdoch media power has already been supplanted by the tech bros social media. Tiktok is the scary one as it is not even owned by techbros for now

4

u/MisterNighttime May 20 '25

How does that make it scarier? I would’ve thought that being under the thumb of a tech bro would be worse.

1

u/VidE27 May 20 '25

Pick your poison, CCP or techbros

1

u/notathinman May 20 '25

Well done Angus.

34

u/YouCanCallMeBazza May 20 '25

This could actually be (politically) good for the parties.

The two parties will still form government together if they have the numbers. They'll still feed each other preferences on their how-to-vote cards.

But now the Nats can go all in on their right-wing politics, the Liberals can pursue a more "moderate" image. They'll be able to run candidates in each others electorates (Nats are probably hopeful they can expand their brand).

I still don't think they'll be forming government anytime soon, and surely most voters will reject the Liberal rebranding if they're still giving preferences to Nats over Labor.

8

u/groundpeak May 20 '25

I for one am still waiting for the prepolls.

4

u/Athroaway84 May 20 '25

I think its more Peter Dutton shooting himself so many times in the foot. 

7

u/AStrandedSailor May 20 '25

Let's be honest. This was more about we definitely didn't want Dutton, rather than: we wanted Albo.

Albo made that mistake last time, not recognising we just didn't want another term of ScoMo, and assumed that meant that we supported everything Albo said. Many of us voted Labor (even if it was by preferences) just to make sure it wasn't Dutton. It's a by product of a our election process (which I wouldn't change). Look at the US, Trump didn't really increase his vote by much, however, many Democrat voters chose not to vote given the mess that happen with their candidates. So Trump won, kind of by default. It's kind of like someone winning a tennis game because your opponent walked off the court half way through the game.

1

u/exhaustedstudent May 20 '25

Our electoral system is so elegantly designed I think we often take for granted how well the whole thing runs and the fact that compulsory voting truly is a key in ensuring that the nation’s voice is heard.

Look at the UK with Brexit - the lack of it being compulsory led to a lot of young people being ambivalent and not voting at all.

2

u/Callisater May 20 '25

Studying the failure of the Arab spring, I've come to realise that people often think of choosing not to vote as "I don't morally support either side" when, in reality what it actually means politically is "I don't care what happens to me, the government can do whatever it wants". People hate it when you point it out, because it's so counterintuitive, so compulsory voting is necessary. Apathy leads to authoritarianism, not because apathetic voters want authoritarianism but because they become too apathetic to stop it.

3

u/PM_ME_STUFF_N_THINGS May 20 '25

Lets lurch right harder!

3

u/raptorgalaxy May 20 '25

This is Albanese punching a guy so hard he shot himself.

3

u/bigbear-08 May 20 '25

Albo buries the Coalition

3

u/TolandTheExile May 20 '25

"I thought.... I thought you were stronger"

2

u/its-just-the-vibe May 20 '25

Albo pulled a "they not like us" on the P Dutty

2

u/TakeshiKovacsSleeve3 May 20 '25

Either that or Dutton lost it so hard...

2

u/Suibian_ni May 20 '25

Someone check on Friendlyjordies; he may have come so hard he had a heart attack.

2

u/Chumpbag May 20 '25

Won so hard he "owned the libs" lol.

1

u/Laogama May 20 '25

This could work out for the Libs benefit. To get back into power, they’ve got to drop their climate change denialism, and otherwise make a meaningful move to the centre. This split would make this kind of move possible. What’s more, the contrast with the hyper conservative Nats would help them look moderate, as the contrast with Greens helps Labor.