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Updated March 16, 2026 — 1:17pm,first published 11:52am
New Nationals leader Matt Canavan, a backer of state support for domestic manufacturing and energy, has taken on the Coalition’s trade portfolio, challenging the Coalition’s traditional free-market position as he demoted his predecessor, David Littleproud.
A week after taking the Nationals leadership, Canavan brought former leader Michael McCormack out of exile in a shadow ministerial lineup Canavan described as a “posse of patriots”.
Littleproud said last week that he was “buggered” after the Coalition split for a second time in nine months. Several Nationals sources familiar with Canavan’s thinking said the new leader felt it would not be tenable to keep Littleproud in a senior job given he had declared he had lost energy.
Littleproud said last week he was keen to stay on the frontbench but will instead serve as spokesman for emergency services and tourism, a more junior position in the outer ministry.
McCormack was Nationals leader in the Morrison government, but Littleproud shifted him to the backbench along with Barnaby Joyce last term. Littleproud said at the time that the pair of former leaders were demoted to create generational change.
In contrast, Canavan talked up McCormack’s experience and described the new lineup as a “posse of patriots”, echoing the Australia-first rhetoric from his first press conference as leader last week.
“The Nationals love Australia and we want more Australian everything,” Canavan said in a statement on Monday.
“To level up Australia, we need to expand Australia into more of our regions. More Australian farming, more Australian mining and more Australian manufacturing will equal more Australian jobs and higher Australian wages.”
Canavan will take on the trade and investment portfolio previously held by leadership rival Kevin Hogan.
The Queensland senator has supported free-trade deals, including the China-Australia agreement. He has also called for protecting Australian industries, including the steelmaking sector, from Chinese competition, including via protective measures from the Australian anti-dumping commission. Canavan supports state support for coal and gas projects.
Hogan will shift to the outer ministry to serve as shadow assistant treasurer. Another former shadow cabinet member, Ross Cadell, was dumped entirely.
Darren Chester, the new deputy, will take on Littleproud’s former job as agriculture spokesman.
Pat Conaghan, the Nationals MP who held the shadow assistant treasurer position, pre-empted Canavan’s announcement of his new frontbench by releasing a statement saying he was disappointed Canavan had benched him.
“In politics, a change to the party leadership signals a change in the ministerial teams and last week’s events have triggered this for the National Party,” he said in a statement, adding that he understood the call.
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