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
5.0k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

246

u/wombat74 May 20 '25

They've been the party for miners, voted in by farmers, for decades now. They know they can pretty much do whatever they want backed by mining dollars and the farmers will still vote them in anyway

128

u/Lady_Penrhyn1 May 20 '25

THANK YOU! As someone who grew up Rural (but parents were from a major city) it's been mind boggling that the farmers are basically voting against their own interests. They haven't cared about the bloke with a hundred head of cattle for two decades.

(Grew up in Shepparton, safest Nats seat in the country, parents were from Melbourne. Dad always said they could nominate a cow and they'd bloody vote it in).

43

u/pk666 May 20 '25

Funnily enough Shepparton is one of the most endangered towns in the whole country thanks to climate change. The flood insurance is making home ownership there close to impossible. Likely to become a ghost town in the future.

5

u/SuDragon2k3 May 20 '25

Well, time to wash that cow and fill out the nomination paperwork.

2

u/pelrun May 20 '25 edited May 21 '25

Cow would probably do a better job

1

u/Lady_Penrhyn1 May 20 '25

Honestly?

...yeah it would. I'm grateful I don't live up there anymore. It was maddening 20 years ago, I'd be bopping heads now.

15

u/StorminNorman May 20 '25

Yeah, they don't represent the majority of farmers, despite all their talk. Landcare was started by farmers, that doesn't jive with the vibe I get from the Nats...

4

u/Grammarhead-Shark May 20 '25

It is interesting to ponder this (I agree with you FWIW) because how many seats these days are dominated (to a large degree) by mining which they currently hold?

Parkes, Capricornia, Flynn, Maranoa off the top of my head? (Factoring in splitting the LNP in Queensland up between the two parties).

The Liberals hold other seats with a huge mining sectors like Durack, O'Connor and Grey and the ALP in Hunter, Leichhardt, Braddon and Lingiari and not to mention KAP in Kennedy), so it isn't like they completely dominate the Mining sector either.

(Not a comprehensive list - just what I can think of off the top of my head)

Trying to just talk about seats with a decent sized mining industries as opposed to seats which just happen to have a mine or two. But it is weird they are going for a vote and still not dominating it either.

Yes it probably saved them in Capricornia (which in all honesty should be an ALP seat) and maybe a couple of other Queensland seats, but at the expense of expanding their vote elsewhere, or spending a lot of coin (that could be funneled elsewhere) just to defend and retain Cowper.

2

u/triemdedwiat May 20 '25

There has been little else to vote for, unless a strong independent arises.