The Nationals MP said Speakman should have had the “courtesy” of informing him of his coming trip. The post was deleted eight hours later.
The division over Fang’s attack on Speakman threatened to split the Coalition after 97 years, with Saunders rejecting the opposition leader’s authority to sack the MP.
Plans for a joint statement to be released at 5.30pm on Monday dissipated, according to sources privy to the matter, raising fears the Liberal party room could take the unprecedented, nuclear option to disband the Coalition after days of disagreement.
But an eleventh-hour deal had been brokered late on Tuesday night, with Saunders accepting Fang’s assistant shadow ministry positions had been terminated, after a flurry of calls between senior MPs in both parties, including Perrottet.
Senior Liberal sources said Speakman and Saunders had several direct phone calls on Monday evening, with negotiations over the wording and timing of the release.
Loading
Senior Liberal MPs had called for calm on Monday, warning a split would only serve the Minns Labor government. But with neither Speakman nor Saunders willing to budge, MPs were bracing themselves for the worst outcome.
One senior source said the prospect of a Coalition split had been “very serious” and a “genuine consideration” for Liberal MPs as the impasse stretched on without resolve.
“I think the Coalition should stay together. Everything should be seen through the prism of ‘how does this help us win the next election’, and that [splitting] would not help us win,” another MP told this masthead on Monday.
Fang will continue in his Nationals-appointed position as deputy whip in the Legislative Council.