Coalition marriage hits the rocks

Indeed, the Nationals blame the Coalition's recent election losses on this policy "me-tooism" with Labor, preventing the parties from having real points of difference, betraying the Liberals' its core values and disillusioning its base.

Unless the Coalition comes together in rejecting net zero, both parties will be cannibalised by the growing array of right-of-centre minor parties and independents seeking to take their place

That will only result in fracturing the non-Labor cause and keeping Labor in office for years to come. Labor, of course, will make hay at any disunity.

Many Liberals might well wonder why in the 21st century they are in this current predicament and that the tail seems to be still wagging the dog, possibly threatening their survival.

Expectations that the Nationals would have withered on the vine as demographic and economic trends moved exorbitantly against them have not been fulfilled. Nor have Liberal attempts at amalgamation been successful federally, though it has occurred at the state level, most recently in Queensland with the formation of the Liberal National Party in 2008 that ended decades of fighting.

Nevertheless, the National Party persists. Its resilience and the attraction of their views to a wider cross-section of the electorate is greater than thought. Remember, the Nationals pre-empted the Liberals in rejecting the Voice referendum and were proven correct.

If the Liberals support the Nationals' views on net zero purely in terms of its political convenience of keeping the Coalition together without any real conviction that it is the right policy, then the electorate will see it for what it is and mark it down.

Now is the time for the Liberals to resolve just who they are and to reset the coalition as real partnership.