What the Coalition split means for the Illawarra

Illawarra Mercury

The federal election is barely out of our review mirrors and the Coalition has announced it's split. For the first time in many peoples lives, the Nationals and Liberals have gone their separate ways. What does this mean for the Illawarra. Video by Maddy Fogarty

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Kate McElwain, the Elora Mercury's Deputy Editor, and I'm here chatting to our political reporter, Glenn Humphreys,

00:07because in the past couple of days, we've all seen the headlines about the split of the coalition.

00:12And for several generations of our readers, they're probably wondering what on earth that is.

00:17The last time there was a split, it was 1987. What does this all mean?

00:22Well, it could mean a lot. It could mean nothing, because we've got three years until the next election,

00:28so there's plenty of time for the Nationals and the Liberals to work out their differences

00:31and reunite and reform the coalition for the 2028 election.

00:37And I think once you get close to that, I think the Nationals will realise it's very uncomfortable being a minor party

00:42and not being on the front bench, not having any power, and they might actually decide to link up again.

00:49In the Elora, we obviously have three pretty strongly Labor electorates,

00:55so perhaps it seems like this might not have too much to do with us.

00:59However, during the election, we did see in Whitlam that there were a bunch of things going on

01:04with the Nationals and the Liberals.

01:05We had a former New South Wales minister, Katrina Hodgkinson,

01:10who was running for the Nationals, pulling out to pave the way, she said,

01:13for the Liberals to do better in that electorate.

01:17So does this mean anything locally, this split between these two parties?

01:22I think it will mean more the further south you go.

01:26I don't see, you know, Cunningham is a very urban electorate,

01:29so I can't see the Nationals bothering to make a dent there at all.

01:34Then you go down Whitlam's a bit more regional with the Southern Highlands,

01:37and then Gilmore's even more regional than that.

01:39And the further down you go, there might be some votes in there for the Nationals,

01:44but that, again, depends on whether they want to run a three-cornered contest

01:48and have the Libs and the Nationals running against each other,

01:51which could just effectively cancel each other, cancel those votes out

01:56and effectively give the box seat to the Labor Party.

02:00What about policy-wise, do you think or are people saying that, you know,

02:05there's going to be any difference in the way policies and things play out

02:09over the next term with these two parties split?

02:12It's quite possible.

02:13I think there is the belief that the Nationals were pushing the Coalition to the right

02:18and without that party there, the Liberals may actually be able to move more to the centre

02:23where pretty much most of the votes are anyway.

02:26I mean, as we saw in the last election, the right isn't,

02:30the votes aren't there that they need, especially not in the inner city,

02:33so they may actually give the Liberal Party a chance to move more to the centre

02:37and become a better opposition to the Labor Party.

02:43Jakub from the

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