1 month ago
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Nationals shadow ministers are drafting their resignation letters as they prepare to depart Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s frontbench following a split with the Liberals over hate laws.
Nationals Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald are expected to quit the opposition frontbench after they voted against Labor’s hate crimes bill late on Tuesday night.
Ross Cadell, left, Bridget McKenzie, and Susan McDonald are all drafting resignation letters to remove themselves from the shadow cabinet.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Their vote came despite the Coalition shadow cabinet agreeing to work with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the laws after he dropped the most contentious elements of his post-Bondi legislative package, an anti-vilification law that they thought might have curbed free speech.
The laws ultimately passed with the support of Labor and Liberal senators late on Tuesday night.
National and Liberal sources said the three Nationals senators were drafting resignation letters at 9.30am on Wednesday, but party leaders were still working out how the process of resigning would play out to minimise damage and avoid a formal split of the Coalition.
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Some Nationals MPs feel that it would be over-the-top to force resignations, given Labor forced the chaotic and rushed legislative process.
But a Nationals MP confirmed they were preparing to quit because the convention was clear on shadow cabinet solidarity. “The outcome is inevitable,” one senior MP said.
Another MP said something remarkable would have to occur to avoid the resignations.
Ley held a meeting of her leadership group on earlier on Wednesday.
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Complicating matters for Ley was that Liberal frontbenchers, including Michaelia Cash, abstained from voting in a break from shadow cabinet convention.
The Nationals baulked at a watered-down section of the bill on prohibiting hate groups after Nationals backbencher Matt Canavan raised concerns that the laws could target political and religious groups.
The four Nationals senators, McKenzie, Caddell, McDonald and Canavan, voted with the Greens and several crossbenchers against Labor’s bill at about 11pm on Tuesday. Liberal senators joined Labor senators to pass the laws.
Earlier in the day, Liberal MPs in the lower house voted for the bill, including Ley and Andrew Hastie. Nationals MPs abstained from that vote.
Shadow ministers are obliged to follow the position agreed by the cabinet.
More to come.
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