Australian news and politics live: David Littleproud told to put ego aside, get Coalition back together

Further on the donations data, there were 21 people and organisations that gave more than a million dollars to political entities over the past year.

Clive Palmer’s Mineralogy topped the list, giving almost $53.2 million to the Trumpet of Patriots and the United Australia Party (the latter of which didn’t run any candidates because Mr Palmer deregistered it as a political party).

Climate 200 paid out a total of nearly $25.8 million after receiving $23.6 million in donations.

Lobby group Coal Australia made nearly $5.4 million in donations, split between Australians for Prosperity (a conservative outfit that campaigned against the teals), Energy for Australians, and Jobs for Mining Communities.

Dr Pamela Wall, a prominent philanthropist, gave $5.26 million to the South Australian Liberals.

Anthony Pratt’s company gave $2 million to Labor and $1 million to the Liberals, while The Minerals Council also donated just over a million dollars, money which was largely spread between Labor, the Liberals and the Nationals. It also included $6000 to One Nation and $125,000 to the Jacqui Lambie Network.

Gina Rinehart’s company Hancock Prospecting donated $895,000 to campaigning group Advance, along with $99,000 to the WA Liberals and $105,000 to the Party’s Victorian branch.

The latest political donation figures have been released (a mere nine months after the election – bring on the real-time disclosure regime that starts in July!), and there are a few interesting tidbits.

The Liberal and National parties outspent Labor by $52.8 million, only to be trounced in a result one Liberal senator last week described as calamitous.

All up for the 2024-25 financial year, Labor took in almost $161.7 million in donations and spent just over $159.6 million.

The Liberals and Nationals combined spent $212.4 million and received donations of $219.6 million.

Trumpet of Patriots, which was largely bankrolled by Clive Palmer’s company, spent more than $54 million on the election campaign, in which it didn’t win any seats.

The Greens spent $40.4 million.

In a blog post, Snap, the owner of Snapchat, said it had deleted 415,000 accounts as part of the Albanese Government’s under-16s social media ban.

In the post, the company said it had taken “significant” steps to act and comply, however, said limitations in technology could “undermine” the Government’s goal.

Snap said the Australian Government was aware of these limitations, which is allowing some teens to bypass age verification tools and access social media sites.

Liberal factional powerbroker Alex Hawke has warned Nationals Leader David Littleproud he is “on the verge of scoring the biggest own goal on the centre right of Australian politics of all time” if the Coalition cannot be reformed.

With Parliament returning this week, the key supporter of Liberal Leader Sussan Ley is urging Mr Littleproud to “put aside” his personal ego and return his party to the longstanding Coalition arrangement.

“This happened quickly. It can un-happen quickly if people are willing to put aside their personal egos. And so we say to Mr Littleproud, put aside your personal ego here.”

“This is not about those things. The Coalition is broader than that, and we need to keep it together,” Mr Hawke told reporters ahead of a special Nationals party room meeting in Canberra this afternoon.

Embattled Liberal leader Sussan Ley will today announce a “comprehensive deregulation agenda” as members of her Party continue to discuss a leadership switch to rival frontbencher Angus Taylor.

“At its core is slashing government red tape that’s holding back growth, investment, and innovation,” Ms Ley wrote on social media.

“Less red tape will mean our tradies, farmers and businesses can spend less time dealing with government and more time creating, growing and trading.”

Last week, WA backbencher Andrew Hastie withdrew from the looming Liberal leadership challenge, paving the way for Mr Taylor to be the right faction’s sole candidate.

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the caucus meeting in Canberra, wearing a Labor-red tie and listing all the practical things his government has been delivering to voters.

The ALP election review released recently noted that a key component of last year’s successful election campaign was that the party delivered on commitments and focused on making a material difference in people’s lives.

The Prime Minister also foreshadowed that the May budget will “look towards significant reform” to do even more.

“We know that there are real cost-of-living pressures still there in our economy – that’s why we have plans to actually do something about it,” he said.

“That is the focus of this united, cohesive, orderly Government, led by the people in this room across our united caucus.

“You can’t fight for Australia if you’re obsessed by fighting each other, and that is what we are seeing on the other side, with the fragmentation of people competing for who can be more right-wing, who can be more divisive, who can dislike their own people more.”

With One Nation foreshadowing a “significant announcement” on Tuesday morning, we revisited a rumour that was doing the rounds late last year that United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet was going to jump ship from Clive Palmer’s outfit to Pauline Hanson’s.

In late November, Senator Babet told this masthead he was friendly with One Nation and worked with them wherever possible.

This morning, he would neither confirm nor deny that he was the subject of the minor party’s big move.

But he did say he way happy to see One Nation climbing in the polls – the latest Redbridge numbers published in the AFR on Monday have the minor party on 26 per cent and the Liberals and Nationals on just 19 per cent primary votes.

“One Nation is on the rise and the Liberal Party have failed Australia and they deserve to be put in the dustbin of history,” Senator Babet told The Nightly.

“Whatever it takes to remove the Liberal Party, I’m on board with.”

A Liberal frontbencher has blamed divisions within the now-former Coalition for plunging support in the polls.

“Everyone knows in politics that disunity is death, and the Australian people will never, ever say that if you are divided, that they think you’re ready to govern this nation,” Dan Tehan told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Meanwhile, Liberal senator Jane Hume said Australians were turning to One Nation because they felt “aggrieved”.

“When Australians are aggrieved, they turn to a grievance party like One Nation, and that’s simply not good enough, and certainly not sustainable,” she told Sky News.

“Unless the Coalition, and specifically the Liberal Party, can turn around its message and deliver what Australians are looking for, which is a genuine alternative, well then we deserve what we get,” Senator Hume said.

The former minister added that she backed Ms Ley to remain as leader, and urged colleagues to unite behind her so the party can deliver serious policies.

Read the full story here.

The fallout from the Coalition’s latest spectacular split will come to a head with a Nationals backbencher moving to skewer David Littleproud’s leadership.

Queensland MP Colin Boyce will attempt to trigger a spill motion against the Nationals leader on Monday as politicians descend on Canberra for the return of Federal Parliament.

Several Nationals members expect the motion will fail to trigger a vote on Mr Littleproud’s leadership as it will need the backing of a colleague in the party room.

“David’s a leader of that team and I’m pretty sure he’ll have the confidence of the room,” Senator Matt Canavan said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters at Canberra Airport later in the day, Mr Littleproud said it was up to his party room to make the call.

Read the full story.

The catastrophic spat between the former Coalition partners is proving to be increasingly destructive, as a new poll finds conservative voters abandoning the Liberals and Nationals, while the popularity of One Nation surges.

A recent Redbridge Group poll has found fewer than one in five people support the Liberal Party and Nationals, while Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s personal ratings have hit record lows.

At the same time, support for One Nation has surged to 26 per cent, consolidating Pauline Hanson’s party as the clear second choice of voters behind Labor, which has emerged from its own messy summer largely unscathed.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, has taken a sharp hit in his personal ratings, while Hanson is now the most popular political leader in Australia.

In findings likely to embolden those conservatives seeking to force a Liberal leadership spill, the polling shows combined support for the Liberals and Nationals fell from 26 per cent in December to 19 per cent now.

That is 13 points lower than the primary vote the then-Coalition received at the federal election in May last year.

Conversely, One Nation’s primary vote rose from 17 per cent just before Christmas to 26 per cent now, more than four times the 6 per cent it received at the election.

Labor remained statistically even at 34 per cent while the Greens fell 2 percentage points to 11 per cent.