coalition unrest over parental leave, page-2

“If we have to suck it up, and it looks like we do, then we’ll get something out of it,” the MP said.

Another expected some colleagues to cross the floor to try to block the ­policy rather than use it as leverage.

“A lot of people don’t like it, full stop,” the MP said.

He agreed with economists that a big-spending policy was the worst thing to promise with a debt and deficit-laden budget in structural decline.

“The day after the election, they will say “it’s your debt now .?.?. You won’t fix it by spending more money.”