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Liberal frontbencher Tim Wilson has compared David Littleproud’s decision to take the Nationals out of the Coalition to Barnaby Joyce’s drunken night on a Canberra footpath two years ago, saying the Nationals leader had fallen flat as moderate Liberals say they’d be better off without the rural party.
“Well, we’ve seen the consequences,” Wilson, the Liberals’ industrial relations spokesman, told Sky News on Tuesday morning. “[Littleproud has] basically replicated the political consequences of Barnaby Joyce on the Braddon pavement. You know, they’ve hit it flat. It hasn’t worked. What we need is leadership. We need responsible people standing up for the national interest.”
Asked if the Coalition could reform with Littleproud as leader of the Nationals, Wilson said this was ultimately up to the National Party, “but it’s very hard to see”.
While he had been spoken about as an outside chance to make a tilt for the Liberal leadership, Wilson said it had “not been something I have entertained at all”. When pressed, he said he could “never put forward things in the future, but I can tell you right now that is not my focus”.
He said that while he was sure some of his colleagues were “making calls”, he had not been canvassed for his vote in any possible spill.
He refused to nominate extra portfolios he might pick up in a reshuffle of the Liberal frontbench if the Coalition is not reunited by the time parliament sits next Tuesday, but added there were “plenty of people who can step up, take responsibility, because that’s what we need now”.
Wilson’s damning assessment of Littleproud’s leadership reinforces the views of fellow moderate Jason Falinski, the former MP and NSW Liberals president who lost his Sydney seat to a teal independent in 2022, who said the longer the Liberals spend apart from the Nationals the better.
“The best option overall is for the Liberal Party to come up with solutions that speak to the problems that people are facing at the moment, to come up with policies that address their concerns and to create a community in which everyone can live the best life that they want to or would like to. That’s the best solution,” Falinski told Radio National.
“And if the National Party wants to be part of that, we would be very happy to have them back.
“But at the moment where they’re triangulating because they’re so freaked out by what’s happening with One Nation – which they’ve created themselves, I’ve got to say – then I don’t think it works for us to continue to be in a Coalition with them.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley and her allies are increasingly confident she will remain in the job for now. Rivals Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie have signalled their intentions but have not started canvassing, according to several Liberal MPs. This masthead reported on Tuesday that Taylor and Hastie, both in the Liberal Party’s Right faction, remained split and that their backers were hoping either one would bow out of a leadership race.
Immigration spokesman Paul Scarr and deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien did media appearances on Tuesday morning and insisted that Ley retained support.
Ley addressed reporters on Australia Day, saying she was “absolutely not” of the belief that her leadership was over.
“I know there’s some frenzy of speculation in the media. I’ve been elected by my party room to lead. I’m doing that – I have the confidence of my team,” she said.
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