Coalition in crisis: Nationals frontbench quits over Labor’s hate speech laws

8 hours ago

‘This is the most disappointing moment that we had to get to, but unfortunately we find ourselves in it,’ David Littleproud, leader of the Nationals party said on January 22, 2026.

Transcript

00:00Later this evening we can pause to remember the tragedy of innocent souls, 15 innocent Australians

00:08who were slaughtered on Bondi Beach, that we pay tribute to them in memory of how our nation changed

00:15in that moment at 7.01pm and I would encourage all Australians this evening to pause and to reflect

00:21and to acknowledge what has been thrust upon this nation and what we must do to fix it.

00:26And that is what we as a nation have tried to do and as a parliament over the last couple of days

00:33and the National Party did that in good faith and we went down there to ensure that we faced up to the challenges

00:41that this nation now faces with anti-Semitism and the rise of radical Islam.

00:47That is what we are charged with the responsibility of doing, that's what we Jewish Australians are protected

00:53but every Australian is protected and that hard-fought right of freedom of speech is protected.

00:59That's the responsibility as legislators that we have and that we've undertaken.

01:03And the lens in which we made our decisions and worked collaboratively for the last two, three days while in Canberra.

01:10This was a rushed process. We are talking about national security matters with complex legislation,

01:17complex legislation that should be scrutinised and understood before we're forced to vote on it.

01:23That was the disappointing fact of it, that we were prepared to come back to parliament before Christmas

01:28to make a determination, even on the migration piece, that we supported.

01:34We believe that the immigration ministers should have more powers to send people home,

01:38to deport those who come to this country who are here as guests and then perpetrate and spew hate.

01:43They should be sent home. We supported that and that could have been put in place before Christmas

01:47and we could have started the process with the government in making sure that we got the other pieces

01:53of this legislation, particularly around hate speech and those organisations that espouse it,

01:59to be able to make sure that the free speech of Australians that has been hard-fought is protected.

02:06That was the ideology that we went to Canberra on.

02:10And I made it very clear to everybody and to our coalition partners that we were prepared to support

02:17the migration changes on Sunday evening, but we had serious reservations about the freedom of speech

02:23and the listing of hate organisations.

02:27We have and still wish to see Hizbeth Tia and also the neo-Nazis removed.

02:34We wanted to make sure, but, that we got the right mechanism that didn't impinge on honest Australians' right to speak.

02:41That was the fine balance and that was where our challenge was.

02:44And so on Sunday I made that very clear to our coalition partners that my party room had made a determination on Sunday

02:49that we could only support the migration elements of this bill.

02:53We would work constructively, but, and from that, that we would send to the Prime Minister the principles,

03:00principles that we could agree on, that he could come back with the amended legislation,

03:04and we would work constructively.

03:06We did that on Monday and through on Tuesday, in fact getting and securing many amendments,

03:12but we were actually asked to get to a position as the bill was being put into the parliament.

03:19That's not a fair process, that's not a proper process for your legislators to go through.

03:24We made it clear and we tried every, we made every effort to ensure that we could get both bills through,

03:30and we weren't far off, but we just didn't have that comfort and we ran out of time.

03:36And we made it clear, and I had continually had conversations with Susan Lee to bring her along

03:42and understand our position and the sovereignty of our room, in that the process needed to respect both rooms,

03:49and that if required a joint party room or a shadow cabinet be reconvened.

03:54But the reality was our room was working to it, but on Tuesday we got to that position,

03:59just around lunchtime, that we didn't have enough confidence and we would not support it.

04:04Now, I told Susan Lee and made it very clear to her that we were in a position that our party room would vote against it,

04:12and that means I would vote against it.

04:13If my party room gets to a determination, I would vote against it.

04:17She asked, out of respect, that we had amendments, if we could put those amendments,

04:22and if they were failed, then consider voting a different way.

04:27I, out of respect to her, went back to our room, and we started drafting amendments.

04:34Unfortunately, the House of Representatives vote came on, and out of respect to her,

04:39our shadow ministry did not vote and actually abstained from that vote

04:44until we were able to put our amendments that could only come up in the Senate.

04:48And we stuck to our word.

04:50Those amendments were put up in the Senate.

04:52They are actually lost in the Senate, and therefore, our three senators who are in shadow cabinet

04:57and our other senator in the National Party, Matt Canavan, voted against that

05:02as the will of the National Party party room, as was our direction to them.

05:07That was their responsibility to undertake and to go in and to make that.

05:13And when there had been no joint party room, there had been no further shadow cabinet meeting

05:17to determine beyond the principles of what we initially took to Anthony Albanese on the Sunday,

05:23the National Party acted in good faith all the way along.

05:26We acted in good faith to get to this position, but we could not be forced into voting for a position.

05:32The National Party is our own sovereign party, and Susan Lee cannot force us to vote one way or another.

05:38And when we have not breached any process, any procedure of the coalition,

05:42we've been respectful for them to get to a position where three of our senators,

05:49who are in shadow cabinet spots, are being asked to resign on Wednesday morning.

05:56I sent those three letters that our senators prepared, along with a fourth letter on Wednesday morning to Susan Lee.

06:04And those three letters were from those senators to resign their tenure.

06:08But I sent a letter advising Susan Lee that if she accepted those resignations,

06:15because it would not be appropriate to, considering the circumstances we had,

06:19then our entire ministry will resign.

06:22We're not offering a resignation for her to accept or not.

06:25We are tendering our resignation.

06:29And subsequent to that, unfortunately, Susan Lee has ignored that,

06:34and she will not, and from subsequent conversations,

06:36will not reinstate those three senators to the shadow cabinet positions.

06:41Therefore, the entire ministry resigned,

06:44but she has also forced the coalition into an untenable position that can no longer continue.

06:49This is not what the National Party wants.

06:53But I cannot stand by and have three courageous senators who put their jobs on the line

06:59for no reason that has any veracity whatsoever to be disrespected,

07:06and our party, and our party processes and our decisions.

07:09That is the beauty of parliament.

07:11That is the beauty of the democracy that we live in,

07:13that we should have the right to go there and have a difference of opinion.

07:16We accept there are processes within the coalition that we need to adhere to at times,

07:24but there was never a trigger moment for that.

07:27And if these three senators could not be accepted,

07:29then our coalition has become untenable.

07:32This process wasn't all Susan Lee's fault.

07:37Anthony Albanese put her in this process,

07:39but it has been mismanaged by Susan Lee.

07:41And there was an out yesterday to not accept these three resignations.

07:49She was aware of the consequences, if she did,

07:51that the National Party were being forced into an untenable position around the coalition,

07:57and she still made that decision.

07:59This is not what we wanted.

08:00But can I say, just in closing before I enter, Kevin,

08:04how proud I am of the men and women in the National Party Party Room.

08:08I've been there 10 years.

08:09I have never seen our party room more united,

08:12more united in solidarity of one another,

08:16of the courage and the conviction of the people

08:18that are there to represent the Australian people

08:22in a way that in their moment, in that moment,

08:27they're prepared to do what they believe in their conscience is the right thing.

08:31That's the courage of conviction that the National Party has.

08:35That is the beautiful thing of democracy,

08:37that we should always protect.

08:39And this is the most disappointing moment that we had to get to,

08:43but unfortunately we find ourselves in it.

Coalition in crisis: Nationals frontbench quits over Labor’s hate speech laws

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended