Australian conservative parties reunite as coalition following brief split

Canberra, May 28 (IANS) Australia's two largest conservative political parties have reformed their partnership days after splitting for the first time since the 1980s.

The Liberal and National parties on Wednesday reached an agreement on a deal to reunite as a coalition and serve together as the opposition in the 48th federal parliament.

Addressing a press conference in Canberra, Liberal leader Sussan Ley said it would be a "great partnership going forward."

It comes eight days after Nationals leader David Littleproud announced that the party had voted not to enter a coalition partnership with the Liberals for the 48th parliament following the May 3 general election, which the governing center-left Labour Party won in a landslide. That marked the first time since 1987 that the two parties had split.

The Nationals' decision to abandon the coalition came after negotiations between Littleproud and Ley on the terms of the partnership, which is renewed before each new term of parliament, broke down amid disagreements on four key policy issues.

Littleproud had demanded that a renewed coalition retain its election policies on building nuclear power plants, investing in regional Australia, divestiture powers for supermarkets, and improving mobile coverage in rural areas.

In the days following the split, the Liberals agreed in principle to the policy demands.

Littleproud said on Wednesday that negotiations between him and Ley in the last week "laid the boundaries" and that now is the time for the coalition to "take on" the government.

The coalition will hold at least 43 out of the 150 seats in the lower house of the federal parliament, with votes in one more seat where the Liberal candidate is ahead by a slim margin set to be recounted, Xinhua news agency reported.

Labour will hold 94 seats, equalling the record-high held by any party in Australian history.

--IANS

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