Three senior Nationals have lost their positions in shadow cabinet for breaking ranks with the Liberals, after Sussan Ley accepted their resignations.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ms Ley said she had accepted the resignations of Bridget McKenzie, Ross Cadell and Susan McDonald after they voted against Labor’s hate crimes bill in the upper house on Tuesday night.
“Maintaining a strong and functioning coalition is in the national interest … but shadow cabinet solidarity is not optional,” she said.
“It is the foundation of serious opposition and credible government.”
Ms Ley said she had asked Nationals leader David Littleproud to provide three new nominees for appointment to the shadow cabinet.
The decision by the group of Nationals contradicted a party room decision after a meeting on Sunday to vote in favour of the laws which are in response to the December 14 Bondi terrorist attack.
Just 20 minutes before voting started on the legislation in the Senate, Mr Littleproud released a statement announcing his party would vote against the bill if amendments guaranteeing greater protections against unintended consequences on freedom of speech failed to succeed.
Senator Cadell said he held real fears about the legislation and acknowledged his break with shadow cabinet solidarity.
“I am willing to take the consequences of my actions,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.
“I think that is fair. It’s what I should do. I can’t do the crime if I’m not prepared to do the time.
“If more people stood up for what they believe … and didn’t play the game, this would be a better place. Australia would be a better country.”
Politicians in the shadow cabinet are required by convention to stick to the position agreed to by the frontbench.
Senator McKenzie, leader of the Nationals in the upper house, said she was “very aware” of the conventions of parliament when pressed if her position was untenable.
“I will be doing what I’ve always done (which) is trying to do my very best to conduct my career here with integrity,” she told Sky News.
The Liberals voted for the hate crimes bill in the lower house on Tuesday, while most in the rural party abstained.
The sole Nationals MP who voted in favour of the legislation, Michael McCormack, said he did so because he didn’t want to “let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.
But he respected the decision of his Senate colleagues to vote against the bill after they failed to get the amendments up.
“There were a lot of conventions that were broken this week,” Mr McCormack told AAP.
Earlier, Nationals senator Matt Canavan pointed to a split within the coalition in 2008 over deregulation of the wheat industry, where none of the frontbenchers lost their positions.
It marks another flashpoint for Ms Ley’s leadership, after her authority was previously tested over the coalition’s climate policy.
Conservative Liberals Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price resigned from shadow cabinet in 2025, while Ms Ley has previously found herself at odds with Mr Littleproud over net zero policy.
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