Why don't the Nationals and Liberals merge in Australia?

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Some of the state Nat parties are a little more independent-minded than the federal organization IIRC.

In SA they sat in coalition with Labor.
And I don't know if they are on good terms in WA either.

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

Okay... According to my research.

In Tasmania and ACT, the Nationals support the Liberals.
In the Northern Territory, the Nationals support the "Country Liberal Party" which is a merger from the 1970's.
In Queensland, the Nationals support the "Liberal National Party" which is a merger between the two state parties. The big "difference" here is that Queensland was the one state where the Nationals had consistently did better than the Liberals, and where the Liberals were in fact the "minor party".

In New South Wales and Victoria, the Nationals support the Liberals in the same way they do Federally. Remember that combined. these two states have 50%+1 of all citizens in Australia. Therefore, the majority of Australians have both a Federal and a State coalition under the Liberals with national help, though, in neither case is the coalition in power (government)

In Western Australia the Nationals have decided to go it alone. They do not support either the Liberals or Labor, but, have decided to support the current Liberal government in a more "traditional" style coalition that is more familiar outside Australia.

In South Australia the party does not have any seats. In reality, it is not the national party at all. The original National Party (The Country Party) merged with the Liberals here way back in the 1930's. In the 1970's, federal Nationals organized their own party that has never been on good terms with the state Liberal party. They've only ever elected two members of the legislature, and one of them sat in a Labor cabinet. The answer is that the Nationals here are not in coalition with the Liberals, but more importantly, you should not care because they are unimportant.