The Member-elect for Parkes, Jamie Chaffey, described the National Party’s decision to split from the Liberals in the federal Coalition agreement as a “huge day” in the party’s history.
“The decision to spilt with The Liberals and to not enter into a Coalition agreement is a momentous one,” Mr Chaffey said.
The comments follow this week’s announcement by Nationals’ leader David Littleproud, who was recently re-elected as party leader (see story page 6), to part ways with their Coalition colleagues. Mr Chaffey said it would have been unfair on the Nationals’ members and supporters to remain in the Coalition agreement.
“As a new member of The National’s Party Room, I couldn’t support a position to walk away from policies that we took to the election, just weeks ago, that were supported by the Parkes electorate as shown by my resounding result, simply to stay in a Coalition with The Liberal Party, who don’t know what policies they do or will support. That would be unfair to our National Party members, supporters, and those who voted for The Nationals,” he said.
“I strongly believe The Nationals are the only Party that truly represents regional Australia, and we proved today that we won’t back down, and we won’t apologise for standing up for what we believe in.
“It is unfortunately that we are in this position after such a long history with The Liberal Party, but I firmly believe that The Nationals have made the right decision, and we must stand by these policies to truly represent the people of the Parkes electorate and regional Australia.
“I do hope that this isn’t a long-term arrangement as the country needs a united Opposition to hold the Labor Government accountable, but not at the cost of the people that we represent.”
The announcement brings to an end a long history of the Liberal-Nationals collaboration which has been re-established several times in the last 100 years. The last major split was 1987.
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