Nationals leader David Littleproud is facing mounting pressure within his party to reunite with the Liberals after surviving an attempt to challenge his leadership.
Mr Littleproud, who vowed no one within the Nationals could serve in a shadow cabinet under Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, is being urged to put the coalition back together almost two weeks on from the break-up.
The pair met on Monday evening ahead of parliament's official return for the year, for the first formal talks to negotiate a potential reconciliation.
Deputy Nationals leader Kevin Hogan described the discussion as "really good, civil, co-operative and friendly".
"There is a will within our room, the Nationals and obviously the Liberal party room, that we want to be a coalition again at some time in the future," he told ABC's 7.30.
"We have some issues to deal with, and we, in good faith, are trying to nut them out right now."
Mr Hogan said it was unlikely the two parties would face the first Question Time of the year together.
Mr Littleproud blamed Ms Ley for the split after she accepted the resignations of three Nationals senators who breached shadow cabinet solidarity by voting against an agreed position on hate crimes laws.
Mr Hogan said the key sticking point remained, and there wasn't an agreement made whether the three senators who resigned would be reinstated.
On shadow cabinet solidarity, he said it had been fully discussed and that the Liberals had put forward suggestions.
"We're going to take some of those ideas to our party room too, so that we can agree with some of the guardrails of how they want it to operate going forward," Mr Hogan said.
Queensland backbencher Colin Boyce failed to secure the support needed to formally bring on a vote to spill the Nationals leadership during a party room meeting earlier that day.
Mr Boyce said the party needed to reunify to reform the coalition, with a majority of MPs backing a separate motion introduced by Victorian MP Darren Chester to reinstate the political alliance.
The opposition leader will also likely face a challenge to her leadership of the Liberals this fortnight by Angus Taylor.
Polling has shown surging support for One Nation surpassing that of the coalition, causing alarm within both the Nationals and the Liberals.
Ms Ley had previously handed down a one-week deadline to the Nationals for them to come back into the fold.
The Liberals planned to expand their shadow cabinet if an agreement was not reached by February 9, resulting in roles held by Nationals on the frontbench being taken over.
The Nationals party room will hold a second meeting on Tuesday before the chambers sit at midday AEDT.
