MEMBER for Mildura Jade Benham has played down any speculation that the Victorian Nationals and Victorian Liberals would end their Coalition.
After the Federal parties parted ways on Tuesday moments before the Victorian Budget was handed down, Ms Benham said the split was certainly a topic of conversation, but one that didn’t apply at the state level.
“We’re a stable team,” she said.
“Brad Battin and Danny O’Brien are leading us to the 2026 election and we are united.
“Even the discussion around scrapping the tax (Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund) and around the budget, we’re a solid team so we’ll hopefully be able to win enough seats that we are in government come November 2026.”
She said the Federal Nationals and Victorian Nationals had not discussed their alignment prior to the Federal Coalition split.
“We haven’t had discussions with them to my knowledge,” Ms Benham said.
“We’ve got state conference in a couple of weeks, so that might be a better conversation to have after state conference when the members, given that we’re a grassroots political movement, they will adopt motions and I am guessing that will be on discussion for state conference.”
She said in the meantime things at a state level would not be changing in the coming year-and-a-half.
“There is no danger that I can see right now that we would not be in Coalition,” Ms Benham said.
“We know that the Nats, given that we are ones, the only party dedicated to regional Victoria, we can’t win the seats to govern on our own.
“We need to be in Coalition, we need to be a team, we’re working together and we’re united to make life better for Victorians.”
