Further damage from the 2025 Australian federal election, David Littleproud, the leader of the National Party announced he was dissolving the Liberal Party and National Party coalition over policy differences. The 2025 federal election was a disaster for the Liberal Party under the leadership of Peter Dutton who personally lost his seat of Dickson in the rout. Interestingly, the Liberal Party lost the majority of their inner city seats with the National Party retaining their rural seats and achieved a swing towards the party.

To be fair to David Littleproud, this is not the first time the significantly smaller National Party has broken away from the more dominant Liberal Party. The last time this occurred was in 1987 over policy issues. Former Prime Minister John Howard was the Leader of the Opposition during the last breakaway in 1987 leading the way for Bob Hawke to clinch a third consecutive election victory. What David Littleproud was trying to achieve in this public fight is unsure, this should have occurred in private between the National Party and Liberal Party. A week later, Littleproud reestablished a coalition after consultation with Sussan Ley whom I believe is starting her leadership of the party in a positive manner despite Littleproud undermining her authority.

This 1987 breakdown in the coalition stemmed from the 1986 Joh for PM campaign where ultra conservative Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Queensland Premier from 1968 to 1987 made a run for federal office. Joh aggressively disliked the socialist Bob Hawke and firmly believed his brand of conservative politics could transform from a state level to a national state. The Labor Party under Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating were behind in the polls and viewed as under pressure looking to lose the upcoming election. The destabalising Joh for PM campaign quickly turned around the Labor Party fortunes and handed the Hawke/Keating government victory.

The National Party is the country party, they address rural issues and is especially important since the majority of Australians live in cities on the coast. Therefore, the National Party holds an important position representing the people of Australia who do not live in the cities. The National Party generally represents more conservative voters from the country whilst I believe the Liberal Party needs to become less conservative and move back to its liberal views. This will have some issues between conservatives and liberals, but they need to overcome these differences.

To be fair to incoming Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley, she has just taken over the party leadership from Peter Dutton and publicly stated that all Liberal Party policies are open for review. What we learned from the election is that the Liberal Party are out of touch with contemporary Australian viewpoints and need to overhaul policies to make them a) electable, b) relevant, and c) pursuing policies in the best interests of Australians. The Liberal National coalition needs to offer Australians an alternative approach and very specific policies. It is my belief that the Liberal Party is being too conservative [or right wing] and needs to return to more centrist liberal policies.