As Parliament returns today for its first full sitting fortnight of the year, the Coalition remains divided.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud held crisis talks last night on reunification, but barring any unforeseen changes of heart it is expected that the parties will remain separate at the start of question time this afternoon.
The split will mean Nationals MPs sit on the crossbench, bringing the non-government, non-opposition section of the chamber to 28 members. The opposition, in this case the Liberal Party alone, will also have 28 members.
As such, the allocation of non-Labor questions to the government will be divided, with half going to the crossbench and half to the opposition. Other speaking opportunities will also be divided equally between the two groups.
Leader of the House Tony Burke said: “It had never occurred to me that when Barnaby Joyce went to the crossbench, that the entire National Party would move to the crossbench with him,” referring to the New England MPs defection to One Nation.
“The crossbench is now as big as the opposition, so the arrangements for question time will be changed to reflect that,” Burke said.
In this term of parliament the government has come under fire for cutting staffing levels for the Coalition after the opposition received their worst electoral result ever.
Shadow treasurer Ted O’Brien on Sunday told ABC’s Insiders that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would be playing political games if he chose to alter the running of question time to reflect the expanded crossbench.
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