Liberals weighing up nuclear policy as part of Nationals negotiations

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A senior Nationals MP says it's frustrating to be talking about internal politics at a time when many constituents are dealing with flooding and drought. The Nationals and Liberals have agreed to restart negotiations, days after splitting up the Coalition for the first time in nearly 40 years. Senior Nationals MP Darren Chester has admitted disagreements between the parties could have been handled better.

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00:00We need to resolve our issues as quickly as we possibly can, because there are bigger

00:05issues facing rural and regional Australians than the make-up of the Coalition. We need

00:09to make sure we get back to being a strong and credible opposition as quickly as possible.

00:14From now until the end of November there's going to be eight sitting weeks, so we do

00:17have time now to finalise the Coalition conversations, hopefully reach an agreement and get the

00:22shadow ministers in their new roles. Look, it's easy to look back on in hindsight and

00:27suggest how things could have been done differently, but at the end of the day I think if we get

00:32to a result where the key policy principles that the Nationals are keen to pursue and the

00:37issue around cabinet solidarity, or shadow cabinet solidarity as the case may be, can be resolved,

00:41they seem to be the sticking points that have been canvassed publicly and I'm hoping that

00:45can be done and as I said get back to focusing on people, you know, rural and regional communities

00:49right now who are facing some really tough times. There's going to be a huge need to help

00:54those communities that deal with the drought and deal with the floods and we've got to

00:57work with our Australians as they deal with these challenging times and not be talking

01:01about ourselves too much more in the future.

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