The fissure between Liberal and National parties had been growing long before the formal breakdown of the Coalition in the aftermath of the 2025 election.

The interests of regional and rural communities (and the industries that sustain them) are not reconcilable with the traditional base of the Liberals: the urban bourgeoisie. This class sustains itself by very different means to regional Australians (diversified financial portfolios, investment in emerging markets, professional consultancy gigs etc.)

The “national” bourgeoisie, in contrast, derives its income from ownership of Australian assets (land, natural resources) and is deeply threatened by the portfolios of said Liberal party constituents. This class (Gina Rinehart and friends) finds political representation in both the National Party and the Dutton-Taylor wing of the Liberals.

Should it then surprise anyone that this coalition between contradictory interests dissolved?

Whether or not Humpty Dumpty can be put together again is beyond the scope of this analysis but what this unceremonious annulment has done is reveal what the real material fault lines of Australia’s political scene are for all to see.

It has revealed three things:

1. Australia’s democracy is a battle between ascendant Green capital on the “left” and the waning monopoly of the old energy oligarchs on the “right”,

2. The antagonism between city & country is not just growing but is only going to become more acute in the coming decades.

3. The independent interests of the popular classes (Labourers and Farmers) are not represented by either warring faction.

It is to this third point that we suggest a different path: A Labor-Farmers Coalition to replace the outmoded Liberal-Nationals Coalition.

A Labor-Farmers Coalition would be one that unifies both the radical forces in the city and the regions against both wings of Capital. It would be a popular coalition that seeks to nationalise the old land owning oligarchy’s assets and direct investment and production (Green or otherwise) based on a rational, people-centred plan.

The emergence of such a Popular Coalition depends, however, on the city-centric leadership of the ALP to recognise the potential the party could have as a truely national party of labourers that embraces agricultural workers over the urban professionals they currently are courting and who dominate the party’s ethos and outlook.

The death of the Coalition should be welcomed as an opportunity for something genuinely new in this country to be born.