The former leaders of the Liberal and National parties have criticised the Coalition leadership, after a mass shadow cabinet resignation left it a "smouldering wreckage".
Eight Nationals frontbenchers have quit the shadow cabinet in protest following the resignation of three of their colleagues after a split on new anti-hate laws.
Former prime minister and Liberal Party leader Malcom Turnbull said that to form government, the Liberal Party has to have the Nationals on side "because it needs to have those regional seats".
But now the Coalition is becoming "more unelectable than they were before".
"I think when they survey the scene, it looks like just a smouldering wreckage, doesn’t it?" he told ABC Radio on Thursday morning.
His criticism of the Coalition follows a public falling out between Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud, the latter confirming this morning the two parties had split.
"This was a rushed process," Littleproud told reporters on Thursday morning.
When asked by reporters if this meant his party was splitting from the Coalition, Littleproud confirmed this was the case.
"Yes. There's no other position ... our party room has made it clear that we cannot be part of a shadow ministry under Sussan Ley," he said.
"We sit by ourselves."
Ley released a statement on Thursday morning, saying: "this is a National Day of Mourning and my responsibility as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party is to Australians in mourning."
"Today the focus must be on Jewish Australians, indeed all Australians, as we mourn the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack."
'Utterly chaotic', Joyce says
Former Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has criticised the split between the Liberals and his former party.
He previously led the party on two occasions and announced earlier this year he would not recontest his seat in New England in 2028, before joining One Nation in November.
He took aim at Littleproud, accusing the Nationals of having "three positions in one night" over the legislation.
"This process by Mr Littleproud is totally and utterly chaotic," Joyce said on Thursday.
"They didn’t get through the House of Reps, they were never going to get through the Senate."
He speculated the dysfunction in the Coalition could bolster support for One Nation.
"I think we’ll get stronger," he said.
The blanket resignations heap even more pressure on Ley, who has been trying to keep the Coalition together since their temporary split after the 2025 federal election.
That week-long split came after the Nationals made a number of policy demands of the Coalition, including a commitment to nuclear power.
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