NSW MLC Wes Fang with Federal MP Michael McCormack and Senator Perin Davey: The Nationals have announced they will defect from the Coalition, the third time this has ever occurred. Photo: Wes Fang Facebook.
The Nationals have confirmed they will defect from the Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party, only two weeks after the disastrous federal election.
While the Nationals retained all of their seats in the 2025 Federal Election, it was the Liberal Party that failed to deliver, losing 13 seats from the 2022 election, and two more seats are still in doubt.
This year’s results marked the worst return for the Coalition in decades, with the Labor Party currently securing 50 more seats (93-43) than their conservative counterparts, the most in the Labor Party’s history.
David Littleproud, the Leader of the Nationals, announced that the party’s breach of the Coalition Agreement is only the third time in history that it has ever happened.
The decision to split did not come as a shock to NSW Nationals MLC Wes Fang, who said the Liberal Party is moving in a direction that is no longer beneficial for regional Australia.
“It’s surprising that they haven’t sought to align themselves more with our success. I wish them the best of luck,” he said.
“I think that ultimately, the Liberal Party needs to reflect on the results of the election and reflect on the fact that the National Party has effectively held all the seats that we went into that election with, while the Liberal Party has not had the same result.
“It would be fair to say that the community generally trusts us and the representation that we bring to our seats and our communities, and perhaps the Liberal Party could learn a thing or two from the National Party.”
Mr Fang said he doesn’t expect any more National Party members to follow Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s decision to defect to the Liberals from the Nationals, stating that those who have, including Ms Price, have isolated themselves.
“I’ve no doubt she probably regrets that decision now she’s moved to a party room where she doesn’t even feel as if she could put herself forward for the leadership position that she craved,” he said.
“I think she has lost the respect of a number of her National Party colleagues, as well as the wider National Party supporter base, purely by the way that she handled it. There were a lot of other ways that it could have been done that would have been less of an issue.”
Mr Fang said, despite the Coalition split, he is confident that the Nationals will continue to provide effective advocacy for the regions.
“We aren’t inflicted with the same factional issues that the Liberal Party are and that the Nationals at both state and federal levels have always worked well together.
“I think that we work better as separate party rooms, but we also are more pragmatic about the way that we approach things, as opposed to a factionalised prism which the Liberal Party looks through.”
