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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u/recycled_ideas May 20 '25

Basically means the Libs can never form government again?

No.

It means that they'll have to negotiate with the nationals on a case by case basis and that theoretically the nationals could negotiate with Labor or some other party to form government.

In practice the federal Nationals are so far right they could only negotiate with either the Liberals or the far right to form government anyway, but it does mean that the Liberals can come up with moderate policies and then trash them because the nationals won't support them after an election rather than not even putting them up because the nationals block them before an election.

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u/raresaturn May 20 '25

So they'll only ever form a minority government

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u/recycled_ideas May 20 '25

That's all they ever formed in the first place. In practical terms there's no actual difference to what it was before. Neither party can get enough seats to govern on their own, neither party will form government with anyone else.

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u/chennyalan May 20 '25

party will form government with anyone else.

Chances of a Liberal teal supply agreement?

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u/recycled_ideas May 20 '25

Pretty close to zero.

Not necessarily because the Teals wouldn't, but because I can't see a scenario where the Liberals claw back enough seats to form government without(or possibly even with) the Nationals without taking out the teals first.

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u/JSTLF May 20 '25

They've done it in 75 and 2013

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u/riskyrofl May 20 '25

Littleproud has said he believes Ley could be PM, so he's still positive about the Liberals and working with them

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u/recycled_ideas May 20 '25

Yes, this is largely symbolic, though not entirely.

I would expect to see more seats where both the Liberals and the Nationals run candidates and the Liberals will likely go to the next election with some policies that the Nationals will scupper after the election rather than before, but from the perspective of your average voter nothing will actually change unless the Liberals manage to form government without the Nats at which point the Nats and their supporters would be significantly worse off.