David Littleproud is stepping down from his role as leader of the Nationals, expressing the usual sentiment of pride in his accomplishments. However, his tenure is marked by controversy rather than commendation.
Littleproud’s legacy is not characterized by strength, sound judgment, or strategic wisdom. Instead, it reflects a period of turmoil and disruption.
Under his leadership, the Nationals have emerged weaker, the Coalition has suffered damage, and regional conservative voters are increasingly turning towards One Nation.
This is not a legacy of triumph but one that raises serious concerns. Littleproud’s resignation is the culmination of months of instability, highlighted by the Coalition’s second significant rift in under a year during his leadership.
The first major split occurred post-2025 election, when he led the Nationals to diverge from the Liberals over a series of policy disagreements.
The first came after the 2025 election when he walked the Nationals away from the Liberals over policy demands.
The second came in January this year after the shadow cabinet rupture over hate speech laws, when the Nationals again blew up the relationship and then, humiliatingly, had to edge back toward reunion for their own electoral survival.
Littleproud never seemed to grasp the most basic truth of Coalition politics: the Nationals are the junior partner.
That doesn’t mean they are irrelevant. It means they need to exercise influence within the bounds of realism.
Dvid Littleproud resigned as leader of the Nationals on Tuesday (pictured with his wife Amelia)
Following months of upheaval in the Coalition, Angus Taylor took over the Liberals leadership
Instead, Littleproud behaved as though the smaller party could repeatedly trash the larger one, and somehow emerge stronger.
The opposite has happened. The Nationals polling is now so low it’s become a statistical blip.
Worse still, all of this came as One Nation surged and surged, including among precisely the voters the Nationals rely on to exist.
Recent polling analysis shows that One Nation’s support has skyrocketed since the 2025 election, reaching levels without modern precedent, and posing an obvious threat to the Coalition in the regions.
Even figures inside Nationals ranks were openly warning that voters were peeling away at a rapid rate.
For a Nationals leader, that should have been the flashing red light long before now.
Instead, Littleproud spent his time posturing, splitting and preening.
He has left his party more exposed to oblivion than at any point I can remember. Even the fractured 1980s Joh for PM campaign wasn’t as damaging.
Littleproud twice threatened to collapse the Coalition when Sussan Ley was leader, only to reform it
None of this should come as a shock when you look at Littleproud’s judgment, or lack thereof. This is a politician who, as a backbencher, was one of only four MPs to vote against same-sex marriage in the House of Representatives in 2017.
That wasn’t principled courage. It was archaic political instincts masquerading as conviction. It told voters plenty about his feel for where modern Australia was at.
Yet in its aftermath his colleagues still promoted him and ultimately made him leader.
That says something about the modern Nationals.
And now, as he quits the leadership, Littleproud isn’t even leaving parliament altogether. More’s the pity.
Fresh leadership is the bare minimum the Nationals need. Littleproud has done enough damage, why is he bothering to hang around?
I guess holding his seat at a by-election would be tough after all the damage he’s done.
The outgoing leader has treated senior figures in his own party poorly, helped drag the Coalition into farce twice, and presided over a period in which the Nationals looked less like a serious regional force than a party sleepwalking towards irrelevance.
His exit from the leadership is therefore well overdue.
But at least it’s finally happened.
