Prime Minister Anthony Albanese remarked that Opposition leader Sussan Ley has faced significant challenges to her authority, while Ley herself expressed confidence in maintaining her leadership role.

Despite Ley’s assertions, Nationals leader David Littleproud recently emphasized that his party would not rejoin the Coalition if she remained at the helm.

On Wednesday, the National Party declared its decision to completely withdraw from the shadow cabinet. This move followed Ley’s acceptance of resignations from three Nationals MPs earlier in the week, prompted by disagreements over the newly introduced hate speech legislation.

This marks the second instance of a split within the Coalition since the federal election in May 2025. The division surfaced after the Nationals defied party lines on Tuesday by crossing the floor to oppose the hate speech bill.

When questioned about the rift by ABC Radio Perth, Albanese candidly admitted that he has “given up worrying about what happens.”

“Yeah, Sussan Ley has been undermined. The first woman leader of the Liberal Party undermined from day one and the alternative leaders are even worse,” he said on Friday.

Albanese is also expecting more MPs from the Coalition will defect to One Nation, following the path of former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce.

“I’ll let them announce that, but I think it’s pretty obvious from the behaviour that occurred in parliament this week at least one more will go,” he said.

Ley says her door is open to the Nationals

Opposition leader Sussan Ley says her door is open for the Nationals to rejoin the Coalition, after being accused by Nationals leader Littleproud of breaking the Coalition.

Ley said she was also confident that she would remain Liberal Party leader.

“The Liberal Party stood firm for two principles this week, the principle being that we need to dismantle Nazis and deport radical Islamic extremists,” Ley told Channel Nine’s Today show on Friday.

“We improved Labor’s laws to do exactly that and I’m proud of that.

“…the Coalition is stronger together. The door is open from my point of view, but I’m not looking at the door.”

Littleproud accuses Ley of breaking shadow cabinet solidarity

Also speaking on the Today show, Littleproud said there wasn’t a “normal Coalition process” to discuss the now-passed hate speech law.

He said there was no joint party room ahead of the vote to present their position.

“Normally the process is that the shadow cabinet will see the bill entirely, it would debate that bill, it will then go to a joint party room where the collective wisdom of both the Liberal Party and the National Party come together to debate it, and to get to position,” he said.

“Those forums weren’t afforded to us.”

Littleproud also said the Nationals had respected Ley’s instruction to not vote against the bill when it was in the House of Representatives.

After the three National MPs crossed the floor in the Senate, Littleproud said they submitted their resignations “out of respect”, but he also made it clear that if Ley accepted the resignation, the entire National Party would quit the shadow cabinet too.

He said the National Party had given “every opportunity” to the Liberal Party.

“We committed to the Coalition, but we were let down again,” Littleproud said.

“Sussan Ley broke the Coalition when she accepted those three resignations.”

Littleproud said his door was still open to the Liberal Party, but his party wouldn’t “rush” through the matters.

“Our door is open, but the reality is I think it’s healthy for a bit of time apart for them to work out who they are.”

‘It doesn’t look good’

Opposition communications spokesperson Melissa McIntosh told Sky News Australians were “pretty unhappy” with the Coalition.

“We ended the week talking about ourselves again, which is very disappointing.

“It doesn’t look good … Our marriage has broken up twice in a year. I’m a Coalitionist and I really value the relationship.

“I know we’re bleeding votes … The reason why we’re doing that is what’s happening right now.”

She said she ultimately backs Ley’s leadership, however.

Speaking to ABC radio, senior Liberals — including deputy leader Ted O’Brien and Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston — backed Ley’s leadership.

O’Brien said he remained hopeful the two parties would reunite, but admitted he couldn’t know “how long it will take”.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan said he still couldn’t “understand” why the Liberals would vote for the hate speech laws without Nationals-proposed amendments.

“I don’t think we should have a law in this country where a government could convict you of a hate crime just for you boycotting economic products, which could happen under this law,” he told the Today show on Friday.

Former Nationals-turned-Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price told Sky News on Thursday that the Coalition had made “a huge mistake” over their response to the Bondi terror attack, where they urged Labor to recall parliament earlier to pass laws.

“I don’t think we should have recalled parliament as quickly as we did.”

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