EXCLUSIVE: A MERGER between the Nationals and the Liberals is off the agenda.
The low-key decision by the Nationals was taken late last year after a lack of support at the party's federal council.
Instead, the Nationals is looking at ways of streamlining the party's structure and using its resources more efficiently.
It is also exploring how to work better in coalition with the Liberals.
Nationals leader Warren Truss told the The Weekly Times there would be no mergers in states other than Queensland, or federally in the short to medium term. The party's national president, John Tanner, also confirmed a merger was "dead in the water" for the foreseeable future.
"The possibility of a merger is something the states do not see happening, including federally."
The merger proposal sprang out of a post-election review last year by former leader John Anderson, who floated it as an option which he personally favoured.
Three other former leaders - Ian Sinclair, Doug Anthony and Peter Nixon - also publicly backed the option as the only way forward for the embattled "party of the bush" which was hemorrhaging financially and electorally.
But Queensland - where the state parties merged last year - and the Northern Territory were the only merger supporters at the party's federal council meeting.
The other four state branches - NSW, Victoria, South and Western Australia - all opposed it.
Mr Truss said instructions had gone out just before Christmas to the party's state and federal directors to look instead at internal structural reform.
"We want to improve relationships between the state and federal parties and find ways to better manage our resources," he said.
Mr Tanner said the party was focusing on what was needed to get into shape for the next federal election due within two years.
"We'll be looking at everything, including how to operate more efficiently internally as well as looking at improving how we work with the Liberals."
A well-placed Nationals insider said a key goal was to find more resources for the party's federal operations.
"The state branches control the money and how much goes into running national election campaigns," he said. "We need to find a way of getting more resources and more autonomy for our federal secretariat."
Merger advocate Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan slammed the Nationals' decision. "They can stew in their own juice, it's ridiculous and stupid," he said.
"It would have been the most strategic political decisions in the last 50 years to merge. You'd bring together all rural and regional MPs in a single forum and maximise your political punch.
"There's not one Labor MP who works in the bush."
