Sunday 8th of February 2026
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

back together and looking to the future, not to the past....

Australia's Liberal-National Coalition, the country's main opposition, reunited on Sunday, more than two weeks after the centre-right partners split in a row over hate speech laws. 

"The Coalition is back together and looking to the future, not to the past," Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said, appearing alongside National Party leader David Littleproud in Canberra.

 

Australia's opposition coalition reunites after row over hate-speech laws

BY Chris Graham

 

The Coalition split on 22 January after the Nationals, citing free speech concerns, refused to back reforms moved by the government after two gunmen targeted a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach in December, killing 15 people.

"It's been disappointing, we've got to where we are but it was over a substantive issue," Littleproud said.

The Coalition suffered a heavy election loss last year and the split last month was the second in less than 12 months. 

Last year's separation in May - largely over climate and energy policy - was resolved within a week.

This time the divisions were sown by hate speech reforms introduced by the centre-left Labor government after the Bondi Beach attack.

While the Liberals sided with the government, their National colleagues abstained from the vote in the lower house and voted against the measure in the senate, saying the measures had been rushed and posed a threat to free speech.

The legislation includes provisions that will ban groups deemed to spread hate and introduce tougher penalties for preachers who advocate violence.

Ley said the coalition had a responsibility to find a way back to government.

"I acknowledge this has been a difficult time. It has been a difficult time for millions of our Coalition supporters, and many other Australians who rely on our two great parties to provide scrutiny and leadership," she said.

The Liberal Party leader said both parties had struck an agreement that neither party could overturn decisions taken by the Coalition's joint "shadow cabinet".

Dating back to the 1940s, the Coalition had not split since 1987 before the brief separation last year. 

The National Party mainly represents regional communities and often leans more conservative than the Liberals.

The Coalition is facing pressure from populist Senator Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation party, which has surged in polling, while the Liberal Party lost a swath of seats at last year's federal election.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg7e981e4n5o

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

seriously....

Sussan Ley and David Littleproud are now 100 per cent united and Anthony Albanese, leading the worst government since Australian federation, should be quaking in his RM Williams.

That was the message from the two Coalition party leaders on Sunday as they announced they were reuniting, yet again, to hold the prime minister to account. They insist he has no mandate to govern even though he won a record 94 seats less than 12 months ago.

These are not serious people.

In a joint press conference on Sunday, they dismissed reports of disunity and disharmony inside the opposition over the past three weeks as fake news. Never mind that those reports were based largely on the public comments of both leaders and their bewildered supporters.

It was just a pity they could barely bring themselves to look each other in the eye.

It was about as convincing as an ageing rock band getting back together for one more world tour and insisting they weren’t just doing it for the money.

Nothing was said in Sunday’s joint press conference that would give anyone confidence that this reunion will last.

Littleproud has recently adopted the Trumpian tactic of denying statements he released in black and white and he tried it again on Sunday.

When asked about his January 22 comment that the Nationals could not be part of a shadow ministry under Sussan Ley, he said: “No. If the three weren’t reinstated, was the caveat.”

Littleproud made no such caveat on January 22 when he announced the second split in nine months, according to a transcript sent out by his own office.

“Mr Littleproud, you talk about the position of the Coalition being untenable. Is the Coalition really splitting up?” a journalist asked that day.

“Yes, there is no other position we are in. Our party room has made it very clear that we cannot be part of a Shadow Ministry under Sussan Ley,” was Littleproud’s response.

Politicians regularly stretch the truth and make contestable claims but does anyone seriously believe Littleproud’s claim the split was handled in “the most professional way all the way through”?

It would not have been a surprise if he had announced that Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia, so fluent is he in 1984 newspeak.

Ley, for her part, looked like she got the better of the deal and kept smiling like someone who has had a lot of practice pretending everything is fine.

Two days ago her allies in the Liberal Party’s Moderate and Centre Right factions were briefing journalists that Littleproud’s compromise proposal of a six-week suspension for all Nationals from the frontbench was not a serious offer.

Now it is just fine.

While admitting that she and Littleproud had disagreements over the hate speech legislation that triggered this split, Ley said the two had “resolved those differences” and that she “100 per cent” trusts and respects the Nationals and their leader.

To be fair to Ley, she did secure promises from Littleproud that “Coalition internal processes will be strengthened” including signing up all shadow ministers to the principle of solidarity. In addition, neither individual party room will have the power to overturn a decision of shadow cabinet.

But this is a commitment to rules that have been in place for most of the time the Coalition has existed in various forms since 1923.

This deal may buy peace between the parties for a time, perhaps even until the next election, but unless something changes dramatically Albanese will be re-elected and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, with its anti-immigration message, will win a swag of new seats.

What was once a powerhouse political partnership led by people like Sir Robert Menzies, John Howard, “Black Jack” McEwen and Tim Fisher is now a rabble.

Australians can spot a phony a mile off. They know when they are being gaslit.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/does-anyone-believe-that-sussan-ley-and-david-littleproud-are-besties-again-20260208-p5o0h4.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.