Shadow Minister for Financial Services and National Party MP Pat Conaghan has resigned from his portfolio due to bitter divisions within the Coalition over hate speech laws.
National Party leader David Littleproud offered blanket resignations for all current shadow ministerial positions held by National Party members on Wednesday morning, after three of his Senate colleagues were dumped by the Coalition for opposing hate speech laws.
“I have since sent my resignation from the position of Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Financial Services to the leader of the opposition,” Conaghan said in a media release on Wednesday evening.
The departure of Conaghan gives Minister for Financial Services Daniel Mulino clear air to pursue advice reform and to respond to the fallout from the collapse of Shield and First Guardian.
Conaghan was appointed to the portfolio in late May, quickly becoming an effective attack dog and criticising the Labor government’s failure to complete the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes reforms to financial advice, the increasing burden on advisers of the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort, and inaction on investor losses in Shield and First Guardian.
Conaghan has also been a fierce critic of ASIC, strongly supporting his Liberal colleague Senator Andrew Bragg’s review of the regulator and using a keynote speech at the FAAA National Congress last November to call out ASIC in the presence of one of its senior executives.
Conaghan’s departure is the third resignation of a shadow financial services minister since Senator Jane Hume left the portfolio after Labor won the 2022 federal action.
After months without a successor to Hume appointed, Stuart Robert briefly held the position until he resigned from Parliament in May 2023, just months before a parliament committee referred him to the National Anti-Corruption Committee.
Hume and then shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor operated as spokespeople for the portfolio, until Luke Howarth was appointed just over a year before the election.
Howarth was among the many Liberal members that lost their seats in last year’s election, including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and former financial adviser Bert van Manen.
Coalition split
Coalition rules dictate that shadow ministers must align in solidarity with the leader of the opposition on all legislation to pass the floor.
This rule was broken when three senators (Bridget McKenzie, Matt Canavan and Susan McDonald) voted against the hate speech bill after amendments sought by the party were voted down.
“The legislation needs and deserves to have amendments heard and tested,” Conaghan said.
“These laws are too important to get wrong. They are too important not to consider the unintended consequences fully.”
The bill was introduced to strengthen hate speech laws by the Labor government which had faced heavy criticism for not doing more to stem rising antisemitism after 15 people were killed near Sydney’s Bondi Beach on 14 December 2025.
Conaghan said the Nationals support the intent of the hate speech legislation but still do not support it in its current reform.
“While I and my National Party colleagues fully support the intent of the legislation, we do not support the rushed iteration that has been presented,” Conaghan said.
“That said, it should be noted that the Coalition has secured significant improvements to the legislation prior to it passing the House, but The Nationals’ Party Room concluded that more time is required to examine and test the bill.”
The laws passed on Tuesday night after the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced mounting calls to recall Parliament early.
The Coalition had voted against Labor’s bill to strengthen gun laws, but the Liberals negotiated changes to the hate speech laws.
The resignations come despite opposition leader Sussan Ley’s attempted victory lap. She said in a media announcement on 20 January the Liberal Party had “stepped up to fix legislation that the Albanese Government badly mishandled”.
“After months of exclusion and arrogance, the Prime Minister was forced to come to the Liberal Party to fix legislation he could not draft properly and could not deliver alone,” Ley said.
“From the outset, we said we would be constructive, and we have been. As a result of Liberal Party action, the legislation has been narrowed, strengthened and properly focused on keeping Australians safe, not political point scoring.”
