The split with the Nationals creates both a crisis and an opportunity for the Liberal Party. Malcolm Turnbull calls the Coalition a "smouldering wreckage" and insists the Liberals can't win without the Nationals. Nationals leader David Littleproud agrees, claiming the Liberals need them to reach government.

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Turnbull lost the prime ministership because he couldn't manage his own party. Littleproud is losing his party room to One Nation and watching Barnaby Joyce defect under his leadership. Neither has built a record of sustained leadership success and as such is in no strong position to lecture others - especially when their own tenures helped create the Coalition divisions they are now calling "wreckage".

I argue the opposite: the Liberals can't win with the Nationals, but they could win without them.

Sussan Ley faces a choice that two former leaders named Malcolm confronted in starkly different ways.

Malcolm Turnbull tried to hold his party together by accommodating reactionary conservatives. He lost both his authority and the leadership.

Malcolm Fraser channelled John Stuart Mill to interpret liberalism for a modern Australia. He championed multiculturalism and progressive social policies that conservatives in the Coalition now attack. Whatever one thinks of his role in the 1975 dismissal, Fraser's application of liberal principles in government offers a model for the party today. The split with the Nationals has made this choice unavoidable. Which Malcolm will Sussan Ley follow?

Since Malcolm Fraser, the party has steadily moved away from its liberal tradition. Paul Keating tagged the Liberals as "the conservatives" and, rather than correcting him, John Howard seemed comfortable - even pleased - with the new label.

Malcolm Turnbull lost the leadership while attempting to accommodate colleagues who rejected climate change.

Under Tony Abbott, it prioritised opposition, aggression and disruption over reform.

Each time the reactive right of the Coalition has succeeded in dominating internal debate the party has lost moderate support and become less electable.

The Nationals hold a limited number of rural electorates and........

© Canberra Times