KELSO

Yesterday Nationals leader David Littleproud and Liberal leader Susan Ley have reached a stalemate in negotiation and the Coalition has parted ways. The last time this happened was in 1987, and it lasted several months, so it's the first time in almost 4 decades that the Nationals and the Liberals have split as a political entity. Key issues they disagreed on were a $20 billion fund for regional Australia, and also on the Liberals’ nuclear policy. Now joining you is Dr Anne Webster, member for Mallee, who is on the line to go through this and is of course, is a member for The Nationals. Good morning, Ms Webster.

WEBSTER

Good morning, Andrew, how are you?

KELSO

Not too bad, not too bad. So you've told ABC Mildura you've been in discussion over the past week about these in two major party room meetings. Did you see this coming in the lead up to the election?

WEBSTER

No, not in the lead up to the election. I think that the discussions between Sussan Ley and David Littleproud obviously began last week and caused enough concern for David to bring the party together, which we have done twice and spent several hours talking through the issues, hearing everybody in the party room’s view on the matters and have come to the position that we have. Not lightly, I've got to say.

KELSO

So you were involved in those discussions, were you, did you have a say in those two party room meetings?

WEBSTER

Yes, absolutely.

KELSO

What was your opinion on all this?

WEBSTER

Well, because we have come to a party room decision together, I won't be sharing my own personal view. I'm holding to the party room position. I think that this period of time apart gives the Liberal Party time to review its policies, which is what Sussan Ley has talked about needing to do and to work out what they stand for, what their value positions are now.

The National Party was very clear going into the election what ours were. We haven't changed, but there was no guarantee (from the Liberals) that those commitments from our point of view were going to be remaining the same. So we, as a party, have taken the decision as I say, not lightly, to separate for a period of time to give the Liberal Party a time that it needs to work out where it stands.

KELSO

So what were those points you mentioned, though, Ms Webster, you said there that there were a few points that did eventually lead to these party room meetings. What exactly were they and what kind of reform do you expect before the coalition can reform?

WEBSTER

So we had four particular issues, one you spoke about earlier, the Regional Australia Future Fund, which is a $20 billion future fund that would provide $1 billion dollars every year into perpetuity, regardless of who was in power for regional Australia. And that's an important principle because we know over this last three year period, for example, Mallee has received very little under the Labor government, our roads are a disaster and  …

KELSO

… And did the Liberals not want that? Did the Liberals not want that fund?

WEBSTER

No, there was no guarantee that the Regional Australia Future Fund would be kept as an agreement. That was hard fought for in the last Parliament and we absolutely wanted to make sure that remained.

We also have an energy agnostic approach, but believe that nuclear should be part of our energy mix going forward. There was no guarantee that that would remain the case for the Liberal Party, so again, that's another issue that they need to, you know, talk through.

Two of the other points were the Universal Service Agreement, which is really impacts rural Australians because we have poor mobile coverage across regional Australia. And the situation at the moment is that the government provides no guarantee and puts no pressure on the providers to ensure that those who are out in regional Australia - and right now I'm sitting between Maryborough and Horsham, on the road, and I've had to pick a spot to actually take this call and to talk with you Andrew, we all know what that means.

KELSO

It is, yeah. It is actually a bit patchy, yeah. You said that, so, they were three points. What was the 4th one? You mentioned the Universal Service Agreement, the nuclear policy and the Regional Australia Future Fund. What was the 4^th one ?

WEBSTER

The 4th one is divestiture, so that was a big issue around supermarkets. We have a situation where farmers are price takers, not price makers, because supermarkets really have the power hand and ultimately consumers pay at the checkout when there are unfair dealings. And when farmers are forced to just take a price that the supermarket decide, rather than having a fair and equitable situation, we believe that divestiture powers for the ACCC to use (as they need to) was an important stick, if you like, to bring into the argument. That was hard fought it in our coalition agreement, David (Littleproud) and Peter Dutton worked to come to an agreement about that. There's no guarantee, at the moment, under the Liberals that they would hold to that as well. So there’s just four, but four that matter, because we want to continue moving forward, we don't want to go back and relitigate those same issues again.

KELSO

Member for Mallee Anne Webster, appreciate your time. Now we've had a text from Pam who says if the policy hasn't changed, why didn't they split before the election?

WEBSTER

Well, there was no guarantee that we weren't, I mean, our expectation was that Peter Dutton would remain leader of the party, so (we expected) those agreements would stay in place.

Now that Sussan is leader of the (Liberal) party, and they have lost so many seats, she's got to reconstitute her party, bring it together and make her decisions. We're giving her space to do that. We are absolutely leaving the door open. And the Liberal Party are leaving the door open. And that's what Sussan has said.  We would hope that we would be able to come back together.

But there are some things you know, our fight in the National Party is to represent regional Australia and sometimes we have to fight very hard with the Liberal Party who are concerned about their urban seats.

KELSO

That was actually a question, just on that note, Ms Webster, that was actually a point from Danny in Stawell who also said: how do The Nationals effectively advocate now that they're on their own?

WEBSTER

Well, what people have got to understand is that the Liberal Party and National Party together as a coalition are still significantly reduced on, in terms of size and numbers in the House. Labor will be able to push through every piece of legislation, both in the Lower House and the Upper House, where our numbers are so significantly reduced that we could not … we can stand against, but we can't actually overpower, shall we say, in terms of numbers, the Labor Party.

Our role has actually hasn't changed. I will continue to fight for Mallee in particular and the National Party all 15 seats, all of us will continue to fight for regional Australia because that is who we represent, we will not change the advocacy and the fight that we take to Parliament on behalf of our constituents.

KELSO

And you don't see any change for the people of the Wimmera/ Mallee and for the constituents out here? I mean, even if the shadow ministry is changed and shaken up by this, you don't worry that this will lead to a lack of power or the de-empowering of the of the Wimmera/ Mallee and the seat of Mallee?

WEBSTER

No, not at all. You know, as I said, while the shadow ministries at the moment sit with the Liberal Party because they are the larger opposition party, they get the right to determine ministries. We had an agreement with, when we're in coalition, The Nationals have an agreement with the Liberal Party which portfolios we will take. In this period of separation, the Liberal Party will take all those shadow ministries and the National Party will have spokespersons and that is the way we will sit for the moment. We will be fighting just as hard and just as focused as we always have.

KELSO

Member for Mallee, appreciate your time, we've got one more question, because just to sort of look at the scale of this, it's really a once in a generation thing. I think it's something that a lot of people were surprised about, and it also is really the only political system, you know, having the coalition and Labor as the two major parties or the two major candidates in most elections, this has, been quite an extraordinary moment for a lot of people.

What I want to know though is do you think this could open the door for other coalitions? Do you think that The Nationals - would you entertain the idea of forming a coalition with another party other than the than the Liberals, in the next election?

WEBSTER

Look, I think we are free now, as a party, to side with particular parties or, you know, members of the crossbench, or whatever, on particular policy issues. That will be something that we will discuss as a party room and we'll continue to look to the future as to how we best represent regional Australia.

I’ve got to say, people need to understand that over the last two elections, The Nationals have retained every seat. We lost one Senate seat because the Liberal Party lost so many seats in NSW. But we have kept every seat for the last two elections.

The Liberal Party, on the other hand, have lost 35 seats over the last two elections. So we are in a strong position to honestly say that we work very hard to understand our regions and to fight for the issues that matter to regional Australia and we will proudly continue to do that.

KELSO

Member for Mallee, Thanks for your time.

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