SENIOR National Party figures say the party must differentiate itself more from the Liberal Party but have baulked at any immediate move to abolish the Coalition.
The once-powerful rural party spent yesterday navel-gazing after it was routed in the seat of Lyne at Saturday's federal byelection and its numbers in the House of Representatives reduced to nine.
By contrast, the Nationals in Western Australia, where there is no coalition arrangement, won a better-than-expected four seats in the state election on Saturday and could hold the balance in a hung Parliament.
Further counting yesterday increased the uncertainty in WA, with eight seats undecided and Labor holding 25, the Liberals 20 and independents two. A majority of 30 is required.
The Nationals' federal leader, Warren Truss, backed away from comments on Sunday about possibly walking away from the Coalition, saying "the Coalition agreement is working well and we have no plans to change it".
But he said a final decision would be made around the end of October when the party's management committee would choose from four options outlined in a review conducted by former leader John Anderson.
These were merging, going it alone, staying in the Coalition but sharing resources more efficiently, and replacing state National branches with more localised regional outfits.
"All options are on the table," Mr Truss said.
Queensland Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce said a federal merger would be "a disaster" and the party should use the period in Opposition to reassert a separate identity from the Liberals.
"The WA model proved quite obviously that having a partisan approach paid dividends," Senator Joyce said. "If you hide behind some sort of Canberra tribalism and think that's going to win you the day, they will throw you out of office."
The Nationals have already split from the Liberals to oppose unsuccessfully the abolition of the single desk for wheat and Senator Joyce said more of this was required.
The Liberals bowed to the Nationals' demands and did not contest Lyne but that did not help the Nationals either.
The NSW Liberal MP Alby Schultz, who holds the rural seat of Hume, said the Nationals were "unable to grasp the reality" that they represented fewer rural and provincial seats than either the Liberal or Labor Parties.
"If they don't want to die, they should amalgamate," he said.
In WA, both Labor and Liberal are short of the 30-seat majority and are courting Nationals leader Brendon Grylls and his party's four seats.
Mr Grylls yesterday criticised federal Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop for predicting the Nationals would side with the Liberals as they were like-minded.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff