The Nationals’ extraordinary split from the Liberals has come at the cost of almost $60,000 for its MPs and Senators, who have been booted off the frontbench.

This means that Liberal leader Sussan Ley will fill the shadow ministry exclusively with members from her party and Nationals MPs and Senators will not be included in the frontbench.

The Nationals’ 20 MPs and Senators will now receive “spokespeople” roles, similar to the Greens, for portfolios like treasury or housing.

Those members have lost out on the additional 25 per cent, or $58,415, that would have come with being a shadow minister on the frontbench.

They still receive the $233,660 base salary for all Australian MPs and Senators. 

“A lot of our members of our party room are going to lose position and titles out of this and money, and that wasn’t even a focus of the discussion for us because of the principled decisions that we had to make about this decision,” Nationals deputy leader Kevin Hogan said.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has also copped a pay cut but has come out pretty much financially unscathed, being the head of the party.

He would have earned an additional 57.5 per cent, or $134,354.50, as deputy leader of the opposition had the Coalition remained united but is now earning an additional 45 per cent, or $105,147, being the leader of a minor party with more than 10 members. 

In comparison, Ley is earning an additional 85 per cent, or $198,611, being the leader of the opposition.

The Nationals will also have to negotiate with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for how many staff they can have on. 

Littleproud said the decision to separate from the Liberals was on a “principle basis” due to a disagreement on four key policies; nuclear energy, a regional Australia future fund, supermarket divestiture and regional telephone service obligations. 

He was seeking policy commitment, but Ley is leading a review of all policies following their historic defeat at the federal election.

Ley added there were also differences in party room approaches to creating policies.

Both leaders signalled they hoped to return to an agreement in the future and poured water on any speculation of tensions between the pair.

Littleproud said he hoped to return to an agreement before the next federal election and had faith in Ley to be the next prime minister. 

The Coalition’s collapse was the first split in almost 40 years and the fourth since it was founded in 1944.