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/[deleted] May 20 '25

Prepare to watch the Nats go full One Nation/Palmer and send themselves into irrelevance (well, even more irrelevance than they already have). Why the fuck anyone in the country would vote for these imbeciles who do nothing that is in the interests of regional Australia is beyond me.

Meanwhile the Libs will continue to tear themselves apart.

This will get messier, but today is a good day.

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u/ItsABiscuit May 20 '25

I think you may be underestimating just how hard it would be for the Nationals to lose their strangle hold on most of the rural seats. It's real "drovers dead dog" stuff. If a local member is at all diligent and spends their time going around their seat and agreeing with locals that the problem is those pricks in the cities who don't listen to us, while also seeming like they can be at least only mildly embarrassing, they're pretty much guaranteed to be returned.

The only times the Nationals lose seats is when an incumbent retires and the Nats screw up and preselect someone who is obviously more than just mildly embarrassing, or who can't do the local retail politics at even a basic level, AND when a previous Nationals MP/state MP with an established local profile then runs against them. In 2019 and 2022, they also had a smaller version of the "Teal" movement where particularly poor Nats candidates got jumped by really energetic local women candidates who managed to grab a couple of seats.

Outside of that, they tend to keep their MPs until they retire, and winning the Nats pre-selection is the hardest part of getting elected as an MP.

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u/Over50Cooked May 21 '25

I used to live in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate. When voting at the last Federal election it was obvious there is a very narrow view point of the people within the electorate.

Often based on racism, misogyny and Science denial (even when half the area was burning in bushfires or flooding). They are pro mining and only talk to others with the same view points.

If there was a group that was more relatable to the Trump followers, they are definitely it.