Michael McCormack has explained the party differences on four key policies led to the Coalition split. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
The National Party’s desire to invest in nuclear energy was a key reason for its split with the Liberals, says Riverina MP Michael McCormack.
Speaking at a press conference in Wagga just hours after his leader announced the historic decision, Mr McCormack said his party sought agreement from its Coalition colleagues on four areas:
- Investment in nuclear energy
- Improving rural telecommunications to ensure all Australians have access to basic phone services
- A $20 billion Regional Australia Future Fund
- Breaking up monopoly businesses to ensure more competition and lower prices.
“Given that we were unable to reach these agreements, our party room has taken a decision, not taken lightly … to let both parties go their separate ways for a period and have some time for reflection,” he said.
“We are proud Nationals. We’ve also been very strong Coalitionists and today is a historic day. It’s not been an easy decision, but we’ve taken it on the back of what has been a shattering election loss.”
Mr McCormack pointed out that the Nationals fared much better than the Liberals in the election.
“We have retained every one of our seats as nationals in the House of Representatives and we’ve done that now for six elections in a row, under four leaders,” he said.
His predecessor as Riverina MP, Kay Hull said the two parties have different values which were too big to ignore.
“There is that divide,” she said.
“Our kids deserve to have the opportunities to stay in rural and regional, remote Australia, to have their work there. They should not be forced to make the decision to leave and go to the cities to work.
“So there is a divide and there is no discrepancy in that divide. Within the Nationals’ room, everybody is in sync. Everyone’s primary purpose is the values, principles and party philosophies of the Nationals.
“We actually won the election for our people who voted for us. We won those seats back. I feel that we need to ensure that we are not taken off on a different pathway of trying to reassess where we are, where our values are. Our values are very clear.”
Albury-based Liberals leader Sussan Ley expressed her disappointment with the decision.
“We offered to work constructively with the Nationals, respecting the party’s deeply held views on these issues,” she said.
“We asked the National Party to work constructively with us, respecting our internal processes.
“In good faith, the Liberals proposed appointing a joint Coalition Shadow Ministry now, with separate policy development in each party room and subsequent joint policy positions determined in the usual way.
“Unfortunately, the Nationals determined this was not possible.
“As the largest non-government political party, the Liberal Party is the official Opposition.”
