Back from the brink? The National Party after the 2010 federal election

Abstract

Despite increasing its share of votes and House of Representatives seats in the 2010 Federal Election, The National Party remains constrained by geography, identity, and Coalition with the Liberals. To illustrate these contentions, four aspects of the Nationals' position are analysed: where the Nationals hold seats; which ones have been lost and to which party over the last 36 years; the Coalition constraints on the Nationals' 2010 Election campaign; the post-election bargaining by the country independents; and the different approaches of the state National parties. We conclude that the Nationals’ role in the Australian party system need not be fixed in permanent coalescence with the Liberals but that some experiment in partial independence might be a viable electoral strategy.