Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition, the country’s main opposition, has split after a row over hate speech laws, casting the future of Liberal leader Sussan Ley into doubt.<\/p>\n
The centre-right Coalition, which has been on rocky ground since a resounding election loss last year, had been divided over how to respond to reforms moved by the government after a terror attack targeting a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach killed 15 people last month.<\/p>\n
The Nationals ultimately refused to follow the shadow cabinet decision, a breach of longstanding Coalition rules.<\/p>\n
“Our party room has made it clear that we cannot be part of a shadow ministry under Sussan Ley,” leader David Littleproud told reporters.<\/p>\n
Announcing the split on Thursday – a national day of mourning for those killed in the shooting on 14 December – Littleproud said the Coalition “was made untenable”.<\/p>\n
He did not rule out a return to the Coalition, refusing to “speculate”, but said it was “probably a good thing” if Australia’s two main conservative parties spent “some time apart”.<\/p>\n
It is the second time in less than a year that the Nationals have pulled out of the Coalition, with a brief split – largely over climate and energy policy – in May last year resolved within a week.<\/p>\n
Ley, whose leadership is under pressure, is yet to comment on the split. She released a statement on Thursday to mark the national day of mourning, saying “my responsibility as leader of the opposition and leader of the Liberal party is to Australians in mourning”.<\/p>\n
Though both parties in the Coalition voted against legislation tightening gun controls, the Liberals had sided with the Labor government on Tuesday to pass hate speech reforms<\/a> introduced after the Bondi Beach attack.<\/p>\n But their Nationals colleagues abstained from the vote in the lower house and voted against the measure in the senate, despite a shadow cabinet agreement, citing concerns that the legislation had been rushed and posed a threat to free speech.<\/p>\n The laws includes provisions that will ban groups deemed to spread hate and introduce tougher penalties for preachers who advocate violence.<\/p>\n On Wednesday three Nationals frontbenchers offered their resignations, which Ley accepted despite a warning from Littleproud that if she accepted them the rest of the Nationals front bench would follow. The rest of the shadow cabinet duly resigned. <\/p>\n “This process was wasn’t all Sussan Ley’s fault,” Littleproud said. “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese put her in this process. But it has been mismanaged by Sussan Ley.”<\/p>\n