Coalition (New South Wales)

The Liberal–National Coalition, commonly known simply as the Coalition, is an alliance of centre-right political parties that forms one of the two major groupings in New South Wales politics. The two partners in the Coalition are the New South Wales Liberal Party and the New South Wales National Party. Its main opponent is the New South Wales Labor Party (ALP); the two forces are often regarded as operating in a two-party system. The Coalition was last in government from 2011 to 2023. The group is led by Mark Speakman, who succeeded Dominic Perrottet after the 2023 state election.

Details
The two parties in the Coalition have different geographical voter bases, with the Liberals – the larger party – drawing most of their vote from urban areas and the Nationals operating almost exclusively in rural and regional areas. They occupy a broadly similar place on the right of the political spectrum.

The partnership between the two current parties dates back to 1946, shortly after the Liberal Party was formed, and has continued almost uninterrupted since then. The Country Party also maintained similar alliances with the Liberal Party's predecessors, the Democratic Party, the United Australia Party and Nationalist Party.

The Liberals and Nationals maintain separate organisational wings and separate parliamentary parties, but co-operate in various ways determined by a mixture of formal agreements and informal conventions. There is a single Coalition frontbench, both in government and in opposition, with each party receiving a proportionate number of positions.

By convention, the leader of the Liberal Party serves as the overall leader, serving as Premier when the Coalition is in government and leader of the opposition when the Coalition is in opposition. The leader of the National Party becomes the deputy premier during periods of Coalition government. The two parties co-operate on their election campaigns, run joint Legislative Council tickets, and generally avoid running candidates against each other in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

A merger of the Liberals and Nationals has been suggested on a number of occasions, but has never become a serious proposition.

History
A Coalition between the Liberal (and predecessors) and National parties has existed without interruption in New South Wales since 1927. Predecessors of the NSW Liberal Party, including the UAP, Nationalist Party and the Democratic Party, maintained a coalition with the Country Party (old name of National Party).

The Liberal Party is led by Mark Speakman and the National Party by Dugald Saunders. The Coalition won the 2011 state election in a massive swing under Barry O'Farrell, the 2015 election with a reduced majority under Mike Baird, and the 2019 election under Gladys Berejiklian. The Coalition led by Dominic Perrottet lost the 2023 state election and is in opposition since.

New South Wales is the only state where the non-Labor Coalition has never broken, and yet has also never merged. This remained the case even in 2011, when the Liberals won a majority in their own right but still retained the Coalition. On 10 September 2020, the Nationals threatened to move to the crossbench over a dispute regarding koala protection laws, but the issue was resolved the next day and the Nationals remained in the Coalition.