The Liberals and Nationals are set to sit apart when federal parliament returns on Tuesday after Sussan Ley and David Littleproud couldn’t land a deal to immediately reform the fractured Coalition.
The two leaders held face-to-face talks on Monday night about reuniting the parties, less than a fortnight after Littleproud declared the political alliance was “untenable” under Ley’s leadership following a split over Labor’s hate speech laws.
The Nationals deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, described the meeting as “civil” and “cooperative” but said further negotiations were needed.
Hogan confirmed one of the sticking points remained the Nationals’ demand that Ley reverse her decision to accept the resignations of the three senators who crossed the floor to oppose Labor’s bill, which triggered the second Coalition breakup in eight months.
Asked directly if he expected the parties to be back together in time for question time at 2pm on Tuesday, Hogan told ABC’s 7.30 program: “I would think that is probably unlikely.”
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The talks were held after Colin Boyce’s attempt to spill the Nationals leadership failed as expected at a party-room meeting earlier on Monday afternoon.
Nationals MPs then greenlit a separate motion from Darren Chester to move quickly to urgently reform the Coalition, just 11 days after the same party room voted to quit Ley’s shadow ministry and split from the Liberals.
Littleproud last week turned down Ley’s offer to meet before parliament’s return but insisted he was prepared to talk if he survived Boyce’s leadership challenge.
Ley’s leadership remains under threat, however Liberals MPs are not expecting conservative rival Angus Taylor to mount a challenge when the party meets on Tuesday morning.
The opposition leader last week gave the Nationals a 10-day window to reunite the Coalition before the Liberals proceeded as the sole opposition party.
Ley has appointed an interim Liberals-only frontbench, with existing shadow ministers temporarily filling the Nationals’ portfolios, but intends to make it permanent if the parties aren’t back together before the start of next week’s parliamentary sitting on 9 February.
The Coalition split was the premise for Boyce’s challenge, with the Flynn MP accusing Littleproud of leading the Nationals over a “political cliff” after he oversaw the second Coalition split in eight months.
Boyce has repeatedly denied speculation he plans to defect to One Nation to join former Nationals ally Barnaby Joyce.
The Coalition split occurred after Ley accepted the resignation of three Nationals who crossed the floor on Labor’s hate speech laws, prompting all of the country party’s frontbenchers to quit in solidarity.
The Nationals want the three senators – Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and Ross Cadell – reinstated in their positions as a condition of reuniting with the Liberals.
Senior Liberals are divided on whether the Coalition should quickly reunite, with some MPs still furious with Littleproud and the Nationals over their handling over the latest breakup.
The Nationals member for Flynn, Colin Boyce, arrives for a party-room meeting at Parliament House on Monday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
While some MPs are keen to repair the decades-old alliance, others – including many moderate Liberals – are content with an extended period apart.
The shadow industry minister and close ally of Ley, Alex Hawke, said Littleproud would be committing an “own goal” if he refused to reconcile with the Liberals.
“I would say, though, that David Littleproud is on the verge of scoring the biggest own goal in centre-right Australian politics of our entire history if he does this. We are urging him not to break the Coalition,” Hawke told Sky News.
The shadow energy minister, Dan Tehan, said senior figures from both sides should come together “quietly” over coming days to thrash out a plan to bring the parties together.
“There needs to be a meeting from both sides to say ‘let’s put aside what has happened and let’s focus on what we need to do to reform the Coalition. That’s going to require both sides coming in and saying let’s focus on making sure this won’t happen again,” Tehan told ABC’s RN Breakfast.
The shadow housing minister and leading moderate, Andrew Bragg, said the Liberals were not “desperate” to jump back into a union with the Nationals.
“We’ve tried to make it work with the Nats, we’ve tried valiantly over the course of the last six-to-eight months, and sometimes things don’t work out. We hope that they will in future, but we’re not desperate. And if we go to the election as the Liberal party, then so be it,” he said.
Addressing Labor caucus on Monday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, compared the relationship between the Liberals and Nationals to an episode of the reality television show Married at First Sight.
“You know they’re going to end badly,” he said.
