The Coalition has reunited after Sussan Ley brokered a deal with David Littleproud to bring the Liberals and Nationals back together for the second time since the May 2025 election.
Littleproud guaranteed there would be no further splits while he and Ley were in charge, after both leaders made significant concessions to end a messy and damaging period for the struggling conservative parties.
The Liberal and Nationals leaders announced the peace deal at a joint press conference in Canberra on Sunday afternoon, less than three weeks after Littleproud blew up the Coalition and declared the political alliance “untenable” under Ley in a rift over Labor’s hate speech laws.
“Now I acknowledge that this has been a difficult time,” Ley told reporters in parliament house.
“It’s 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 national leadership, but the Coalition is back together and looking to the future, not the past.”
Ley had given the Nationals until this Monday to reunite with the Liberals before she proceeded with a permanent Liberal-only frontbench that would have cemented the breakup.
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Under the peace deal finalised on Saturday, all of the former Nationals frontbenchers will be suspended from the shadow ministry until March before resuming in their old portfolios.
Littleproud and the Nationals’ deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, will attend shadow cabinet and other senior leadership meetings during the period, even though neither would technically hold frontbench positions.
The deal represents a compromise from both leaders, whose standing among their colleagues has been damaged in the messy saga.
Ley last week offered to reunite with the Nationals but only if the three Nationals senators who crossed the floor on Labor’s hate speech laws – Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and Ross Cadell – served a six-month suspension on the backbench.
But Littleproud, who initially said the Coalition was “untenable” under Ley, was adamant the Nationals had done nothing wrong and therefore shouldn’t be punished.
The Nationals’ position softened late last week, with the party agreeing that all former frontbenchers, not just the three senators, would accept a short suspension.
However, the Nationals wanted to remain apart from the Liberals for the duration of that period.
At the time, multiple Liberal sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Nationals’ proposal was not being treated as a serious offer and was likely to be rejected unless revised.
The two leaders held further talks on Friday and Saturday to salvage a deal, with Ley briefing the Liberal leadership team about her decision on Saturday night.
The patch-up marks the second time the two parties have split and reformed in less than 12 months, after the Nationals briefly blew up the Coalition following last year’s federal election.
Asked on Sunday if he could guarantee no further fractures, Littleproud said: “Yes”.
Ley said the fact that she was fronting up at a press conference next to Littleproud meant voters could trust her assurance that the parties had resolved their differences.
The prospect of reuniting the Coalition has divided the Liberals and heaped further pressure on Ley as she fights to retain her leadership.
The former Liberal prime minister John Howard and senior conservatives publicly intervened to advocate for a reconciliation, while others – including many moderates – were comfortable with a period of time apart from the Nationals.
The formation of an all-Liberal frontbench would have allowed Ley to promote six MPs to shadow cabinet and a further two to the shadow ministry.
The appointments could have helped bolster her internal positions as conservative rival Angus Taylor weighs a leadership challenge as soon as next week.
On Sunday, Ley was confident she would survive as leader.
“I am very confident about the overwhelming support of my party room,” she said.
“They elected me nine months ago to lead. I said then that I was up for the job – I am up for the job now.”
In his clearest public statement about his intentions, Taylor said on Friday that he still harboured leadership ambitions but insisted there was “no plan” for a spill next week.
“I’m not going to say to you and your listeners that I don’t have and haven’t had leadership ambitions. I clearly have had [them]. You know, that’s why I ran for the leadership last time around,” he told 2GB.
