CANBERRA – Australia's two most prominent conservative political parties have ended their long-standing alliance amid a disagreement over hate speech laws introduced in response to the Bondi Beach terror attack.
David Littleproud, leader of the rural-focused National Party of Australia, on Thursday morning announced that the party had decided to leave its coalition with the urban-focused Liberal Party.
With the exception of a brief split in the wake of a landslide defeat at the 2025 general election, the two parties have formed the conservative coalition since 1987 and governed Australia between 1996 and 2007 and again from 2013 to 2022, with National leaders often serving as deputies to Liberal prime ministers.
Littleproud said on Thursday that the National Party room had decided that the partnership was untenable under the current Liberal leader and opposition leader, Sussan Ley.
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It comes after the Liberal Party on Tuesday provided the requisite support in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, to pass new hate speech laws proposed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the wake of the terror attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach in December.
The coalition had previously ruled out support for the legislation, but Ley entered negotiations with Albanese and eventually agreed to support the laws, prompting all 11 National Party members of the shadow ministry to resign on Wednesday.
