Staying with Paterson, he said his party would need to fill the shadow frontbench positions left vacant after the party split with the Nationals before parliament returns next week, but that he wanted to work towards reuniting the Coalition. “I note that David Littleproud has not yet appointed any spokesmen for those areas as well,” Paterson told ABC Radio National. “It would be preferable to fight the next election in coalition rather than apart.”The Coalition split last week was precipitated by three Nationals senators crossing the floor on Labor’s hate speech reforms and breaking shadow cabinet solidarity. Paterson declined to speculate on how his colleagues were positioning for a potential leadership spill, but said Sussan Ley had his support. “I wouldn’t be speaking to you this morning as the shadow minister for finance if she didn’t [have my support].