Updated ,first published
David Littleproud’s direct attack on Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Coalition has infuriated the Liberals, who are briefing against the Nationals leader even as they privately acknowledge that Ley is badly damaged as opposition leader and begin discussing options for her replacement.
Liberals went on the attack against Littleproud on Thursday after he declared the Coalition was over and blamed Ley, with some MPs backgrounding media outlets that Nationals defector Barnaby Joyce was right about Littleproud’s dishonest character.
Nationals MPs insist Littleproud was forced into the radical position after Ley accepted the resignations of three Nationals senators who broke shadow cabinet convention by voting against the Coalition’s position to support Labor’s hate crimes laws on Tuesday.
There is no appetite among Ley’s critics to push for a special meeting before parliament returns in February, so the soonest a leadership challenge could occur would be early next month.
“It feels inevitable that she will be replaced, but the timelines aren’t clear,” one right-wing MP said.
Leadership rival Angus Taylor is returning from a European holiday as planned later this week. He has been in touch with colleagues to assess whether it is the right time to strike, but one of his supporters said it could create even more chaos if a Liberal leadership challenge followed a Coalition split in quick succession.
Andrew Hastie, another likely leadership contender, has defended himself on social media for voting for the hate speech bill along with other Liberals, saying “you often only get the choice between multiple bad options” and telling the thousands of commenters angry with him that “purity is for keyboard warriors and paid influencers”.
Liberal MPs said there were two prevailing narratives emerging about the Coalition split. One was that Ley had mishandled the saga and her leadership was terminal; the other held that the Nationals had acted recklessly and should not dictate the Liberal leadership.
One source said that both held true: MPs believed Ley’s leadership was badly wounded, but that Littleproud’s actions meant there was a strong appetite not to reward the Nationals.
Many MPs spent Thursday on the phone canvassing options, but the conversations were disorganised, numbers were not being counted, and key backers of Hastie and Taylor did not want to publicly cut down Ley, instead preferring that she see the writing on the wall herself.
In a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday morning, Littleproud blamed Ley for forcing his hand, as he explained his decision to blow up the Coalition by quitting the joint frontbench along with 10 other Nationals MPs. Ley and Littleproud have had a strained relationship for years.
The Nationals leader claimed it was Ley’s actions that led to the historic rupture because she should not have accepted the resignations of three Nationals senators who broke shadow cabinet convention when they voted against the Coalition’s position to support Labor’s hate crimes laws on Tuesday.
“She has forced the Coalition into an untenable position,” Littleproud said, adding “we sit by ourselves”.
“It’s done. I spoke to Sussan Ley half an hour ago.
“We made it very clear that there would be a consequence, and that if Sussan accepted those resignations, then that consequence is that the Coalition would be untenable. It would be forced into a position that could not continue. She was aware of that.
“We cannot be part of a shadow ministry under Sussan Ley.”
Ley had asked Littleproud not to speak publicly about politics on Thursday because it is the day of mourning for the Bondi massacre.
She released a short statement as Littleproud was speaking, saying: “Today the focus must be on Jewish Australians, indeed all Australians, as we mourn the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack.
“This is a national day of mourning and my responsibility as leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal Party is to Australians in mourning.”
It is the second time the Coalition parties have split since the last election, after the eight-day split in May last year.
Ley will need to start making arrangements for a new Liberal-only opposition. Some Liberals, particularly moderates, hope the party will be able to regenerate without the presence of their conservative junior partner, but the opposition’s prospects remain dim as Ley’s polling numbers are poor.
The crux of Littleproud’s argument is that the Coalition’s internal decision-making process on Labor’s hate crimes laws, which make visa cancellations easier and ban hate groups, was flawed.
Ley and senior Liberals argue that the shadow cabinet, which includes senior Nationals, agreed on Sunday to back Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s watered-down bill if he agreed to Coalition amendments.
Over the next two days, Coalition shadow ministers secured a series of concessions from Labor, executing the will of the shadow cabinet.
But over Monday and Tuesday, the Nationals-only party room held a flurry of meetings to discuss the bill, as right-wing backbencher Matt Canavan raised objections. After several of these meetings, the junior Coalition partner made amendment requests, some of which the government could not accept. Canavan believed the sweeping new powers to ban hate groups – aimed at neo-Nazi organisations and radical Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir – could be used to crack down on mainstream political and religious groups, a view shared by the Greens.
Littleproud argued on Thursday that the final bill should have been discussed in another shadow cabinet meeting or joint party room meeting.
Liberals believed there was no need for another joint meeting and also no time, given how many Nationals meetings were being held and how Labor was rushing the legislative process.
Senior Liberals, including right-wingers, are furious with Littleproud because shadow ministers Jonno Duniam, Paul Scarr and Michaelia Cash all briefed the Nationals-only meetings to deal with their concerns.
But Littleproud said his party room – which has often been pushed to its positions by Canavan, a leadership threat to Littleproud – was still working through its processes until late on Tuesday when the Senate started to vote.
Therefore, his MPs felt compelled to vote against the laws, he said, even though the shadow cabinet agreed in principle on Sunday to back the bill with amendments.
Three Nationals frontbench senators – Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald – had offered their resignations out of respect for shadow cabinet convention, Littleproud said. But, he argued, Ley should not have accepted them and should instead have acknowledged the unique circumstances caused by Labor’s flawed emergency process.
“If there was some courage of leadership and acknowledgment of that, then we could have averted all this,” he said.
“This is not what we wanted.”
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
Paul Sakkal is chief political correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and has won Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect via Twitter or email.
