Thought the Libs were out of touch? The Nats would like you to hold a bar full of beers.

In a move that can only be described as ego-fuelled stupidity, the Nationals have ditched the coalition that has protected their very existence for decades.

David Littleproud could barely wait for Sussan Ley to bury her mother – indeed, driving to Albury to discuss the coalition agreement, rather than waiting for her to get back to Canberra – to pull the pin on the agreement, claiming it was a ‘principled position’.

There’s nothing principled about it. It’s just stupid.

And Sussan Ley politely called BS on the very disingenuous claims of the Nationals leadership saying it was not at all about policy, but about the Nats wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They wanted to be part of the Coalition shadow cabinet, collect the extra pay and profile that goes with that, and then vote against and speak against cabinet decisions.

Morons. As if Sussan Ley, very much a creature of the discipline dominated Howard era, was ever going to agree to that. Nor should it ever be agreed to – if you agree to be a member of the team, you support the team.

Watching the press conferences and commentary yesterday, the rushed nature of it raised many questions for me. Why exactly were they in such a hurry that they couldn’t wait for Ley to get back from burying her mother, couldn’t wait for Joyce to get back from surgery, and had to blow up the entire coalition before the seats were even declared?

When the talking heads were saying on election night that “perhaps the coalition should spend some time apart” I thought it was utterly bizarre, and the usual spin of the Liberals wanting to throw the National Party under the bus for their own failure yet again. Most people I spoke to, like me, thought it was a fiction conjured up by a bored press gallery wanting something to natter about. I was told by almost every contact I have in my political contact list that they didn’t know where this push to end coalition was coming from but they couldn’t imagine it happening, and they didn’t think Littleproud was that stupid.

Appears he is.

While I have said for years that the Nats and Libs should run separate Senate tickets, and firmly believe the LNP in Queensland should be demerged, the simple fact is that the only reason the Nationals still exist at all is that coalition agreement gave the Nats the stature of being a party of government. Littleproud now needs to front up to all those National Party voters and explain, exactly, how they didn’t mislead them into voting for them on the basis they would be in a position of power.

Even the claims that the Nationals were driving the Nuclear agenda sounded just odd to me, because anyone who watches these things closely – rather than just regurgitate the rapid fire vomit of commentary from ill-informed ‘presenters’ – knows that they guy who did all the detailed work, and has been the biggest champion of nuclear, is not Barnaby Joyce, it’s Ted O’Brien, whose just been elevated to deputy leader of the Liberals.

As if the Libs were not going to support nuclear in their policy mix. Seriously.

One of the other policies they claimed was at issue was the extending of the Universal Service Obligation to cover mobile phones, which is Labor Party policy already committed to by both sides before the election. NFF even appeared at the press event with Michele Rowland to announce it.

The policy issue led with in the press conference, when Bridget McKenzie had her little say, was divestiture of supermarkets. Divestiture is what socialists do, and absolutely counter to the values of both the Nationals and Liberals (or what the values used to be, who the hell knows what they are now) but that minor technicality seems to be lost on whomever in the Nats is pushing that bandwagon.

And it is on divesture powers that the Nats really lose any and all credibility.

In all the polling and focus groups I’ve done – and we’re talking hundreds of thousands of people, mostly rural voters, for over a decade – not a single person has said “you know, what would really make a big difference in my life and improve things or our rural communities is if we could spend a heap of taxpayer dollars forcing the break up of successful Australian companies”.

Littleproud and McKenzie prattle on as though this one policy would make a real difference in the lives of rural people. Utter BS. The only supermarket power causing pain to rural people are in those towns where there is only one supermarket – and it’s usually an IGA or other independent – who charge massive premiums on almost every item because they can. In places like Walgett, rural people are being insanely ripped off on the basics and I’ve never heard the Nats say boo about that.

If you thought the Liberals were out of touch, the Nats have just demonstrated they’re not so bad. This dumbfounding over-reaction to the Libs wanting to take some time to sort their issues is both damaging to regional Australia, who the Libs are now free to completely ignore – and by extension so can the Government, and a near death sentence for the National Party.

The Nationals could have run the table for the next three years and gotten rural issues right into the heart of Coalition policy. Not noisy distractions like nuclear and divestiture, but real policy for the regions, like decentralisation of the public service, real investment in roads and infrastructure, building up out regional centres with a growth agenda, getting us back the services we deserve.

But nah, that would require them to have a brain and see the big picture.

Right at the moment where they had the most power, they chuck it all away.

Returned by and large because they weren’t seriously challenged, and thus were able to direct every resource to holding the couple of seats where they were, The Nationals have now opened themselves up to having challenges from Liberals in every seat save Queensland.

What happens to the LNP in Queensland now, which is a division of the Liberal Party – which kinda means Littleproud is in the wrong party room – who knows.

This is not the National Party of my father and grandfather. This is not a party that puts people first. This is not a party of cautious conservatism and agrarian socialism, respectfully negotiating the best deal for our communities. This is not a party of sensible solutions fighting for dignity and decency.

The current incarnation of the parliamentary National Party is just an ideological cesspit of too much ego and not enough brain.

And the really sad bit? There are some amazing, thoughtful, highly credible people in the rank and file of the Nationals. Good people who care about their communities and want to help do what’s right for all. Little c conservatives that they are, they will stick with the party to work it out – exactly what the leadership of the Nationals are not doing.

They should be resigning their membership today and running for the doors.

Take it from another little-c conservative that spent far too much time and energy trying to get the Australian Democrats train wreck back on the rails, it isn’t worth it.

I give the Nats about 3 weeks. That’s how long they have to pull their head in, and get back to work. If they don’t, they’re done. They will never again be anything more than a rump minor party that will have less influence than the Greens.

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