By LIAM DURKIN

 

FEDERAL Member for Gippsland Darren Chester says he will continue to serve the interests of regional Australians after resigning from the Coalition Shadow Ministry.

Mr Chester told Opposition Leader Sussan Ley it was with “a heavy heart” that he resigned from the position of Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs after the Nationals voted against the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill.

The bill was described as “flawed” in a press release from the Gippsland leader.

“The shadow portfolio responsibility of protecting the interests of Australian veterans and their families was a position that I held dearly due to my enduring respect for Australian Defence Force personnel,” Mr Chester said.

“But given the circumstances where the Liberal leader was demanding three National Party Senators resign from their positions for voting against the bill, I joined with my colleagues in tendering my resignation.”

Mr Chester said the decision would have no impact on his role as Member for Gippsland.

“I remain absolutely committed to representing the interests of Gippslanders, and all regional Australians in federal Parliament,” he said.

“The Prime Minister is treating regional people with contempt, and this week’s appalling abuse of Parliamentary process on a matter of national security just strengthens my determination to get rid of this bad government.

“Now more than ever, regional Australia needs strong and experienced representation in federal Parliament because the Labor-Greens are combining to undermine our way of life, and our livelihoods.

“The Nationals are the only party which is 100 per cent focused on the needs of regional communities, and we will continue to fight for a fair share of funding for critical services and infrastructure, along with policies which support rural and regional industries and our families.”

Liberal Member for Monash, Mary Aldred declined to comment to the Express.

Ms Aldred did however reaffirm her support for Ms Ley when interviewed on ABC Gippsland last Friday.

The Member for Monash padded most questions back to the bowler, saying “I’m an optimist” three times in the first two minutes of the interview.

“Of course there have been some rough patches,” she acknowledged.

“I think in the Australian national interest we will come back at some point. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to take a moment for each of our respective party’s to think through those issues.

“Darren and I go to Canberra with a very strong ‘Team Gippsland Region’ approach to our work. We work very well together and very closely together, we work very much as a team in this region to deliver for our local community.”

Ms Aldred could be facing a nervous wait should federal Liberal colleague Andrew Hastie challenge for the leadership, given the two clashed in a partyroom meeting last year.

Where things could also get tricky for the Libs is dealing with connotations that the removal of Ms Ley – the first woman to hold leadership of the party – will be viewed as misogynistic.

As one Latrobe City female councillor has said repeatedly over the years however whenever genders are raised: “Just do your job”.

Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg has also emerged as a possible candidate to challenge Ms Ley.

While currently out of politics, Mr Frydenberg has been a key spokesperson since Bondi.

A Jewish Australian, he won national acclaim for his condemnation of the attack, and high praise in many quarters for standing up to ABC journalist Sarah Ferguson, after she questioned if the former Liberal MP was using the tragedy as political motivation.

 

ROBERT Menzies must be turning in his grave.

The Liberals and Nationals have split up for the second time since last year’s federal election pummelling, following mass resignations from Nationals frontbenchers over the government’s hate speech laws.

All eight Nationals serving on the frontbench, including Federal Member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, handed their resignations to Liberal leader Sussan Ley last week.

Three Nationals frontbenchers voted against a bill to target hate groups, going against what the Coalition had agreed upon.

The Nationals maintain proper process was not followed when bringing in the new laws, fast tracked in the wake of the Bondi attack, before Parliament.

The new laws, the toughest in Australian history, passed with Liberal support, although the Nationals, One Nation, and perhaps most tellingly, The Greens, voted against.

Concerns around freedom of speech were raised, and more specifically, exactly what constitutes a hate group.

As Greens leader Larissa Waters pointed out: “It is not antisemitic to call out the actions of the Netanyahu regime in conducting a genocide.”

Hate groups have been defined as organisations that publicly incite hatred or communal violence against a person or group due to their
race or national or ethnic origin.

The Home Affairs Minister must however be satisfied a group has met that definition, and cannot act without advice from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.

The bill was passed to target neo-Nazis and radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahir, whose online presence was taken down once the laws came into effect.

Traralgon-born John Pesutto lost his leadership of the state Liberal party in 2024 after a prolonged legal battle against colleague Moira Deeming attended a women’s rights rally that was gate crashed by neo-Nazis.

Back in Canberra, the Nationals will sit on the crossbench.

Nationals leader David Littleproud informed Ms Ley last Wednesday morning that three of his senators, Bridget McKenzie, Susan McDonald and Ross Cardell were resigning.

Mr Littleproud warned Ms Ley to expect the whole party to quit if the resignations were accepted.

From the carnage, pressure has mounted on Ms Ley’s leadership of the Opposition, which is now on life support.

Mr Littleproud has made it clear the party is not willing to serve in a shadow cabinet under Ms Ley.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is surely counting himself as either very lucky or very smart to come out of the Bondi aftermath, from a political context, relatively unscathed.

The PM withstood a barrage of criticism over his handling of the tragedy, before eventually yielding to public demand in calling a Royal Commission.

As they say, timing is everything. The Coalition split last Thursday (January 22), on what was a national day of mourning for victims of the massacre.

Both party leaders at least showed enough class to respect the day before fronting the media.