Joyce’s old ally Canavan ready to attack him as new enemy when he defects to One Nation

3 months ago 21

Nationals leadership contender Matt Canavan has put his hand up for a top position in the Coalition to take up the fight to One Nation as Barnaby Joyce prepares to defect to Pauline Hanson’s party.

Joyce did not return calls on Wednesday and kept a low profile after he hinted earlier in the week that he would publicly confirm his expected move to One Nation as early as Friday, and Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Wednesday avoided an opportunity to ask him to stay in the Nationals.

Nationals allies including Michael McCormack and Canavan, a friend and former staffer for Joyce, have been urging the former leader of the party to stay in the tent. But Joyce’s Monday night steak dinner with Hanson was viewed as near-confirmation he is quitting, prompting Canavan to flick to switch to campaigning against an old ally and boss who would become a political enemy cannibalising the already-depressed Coalition vote.

Canavan has not served in a Coalition cabinet or shadow cabinet since he resigned from the ministry in 2020. He told this masthead on Wednesday that he would be happy to take a shadow cabinet position because he was no longer out of step with party policy since Ley dumped net zero.

“I’m not agitating to come back and I continue to love doing the job of a senator representing Queensland, but if I’m asked, I would take a role because I’ll do anything I can now to help defeat a Labor government,” he said.

“I couldn’t [enter a shadow cabinet] position while the shadow cabinet supported net zero.”

Canavan challenged Littleproud for the leadership after the election and piled pressure on the party leader to kill the 2050 emissions target. He is also a leading populist-right voice in the Coalition and communicates with the same segment of the electorate being targeted by a surging One Nation party that Joyce could lead in future.

Canavan’s attack lines against Hanson and Joyce this week signify a new-found appetite to attack One Nation within the Coalition, which has spent years feuding with the teal independents hoovering up votes in the inner city.

“Where are [Hanson’s] runs on the board?” Canavan said, stressing that he still had respect for Hanson.

“Can Pauline point to a dam, a road, a bridge, a hospital? A change in laws that has helped small business or farmers? I can’t think of any. She’s been around for three decades.”

Canavan said Hanson’s burqa stunt, which he described as offensive to Muslims, distracted from the parliament’s ability to hold Labor to account on energy policy.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson talk over a dinner of pasta, salad and steaks in Hanson’s office on Monday night.

Rather than crying over spilt milk, Canavan argued his party needed to muscle up to fill the void left by Joyce, a polarising but charismatic performer, who has for many years led conservative arguments on climate change, telecommunications, and regional identity.

“I’m not going to lose sleep over Barnaby going. Be the warrior that charges into battle and gets some scalps,” said Canavan, whose colleagues believe still wants to lead the Nationals one day.

“We’ve all got to lift our game. I’ve always been upfront about this: Barnaby would be a big loss to us. It’s next man up now, next woman up, there are great people in our party.”

One MP, who asked to speak anonymously so he could freely discuss internal discussions, said Joyce had not attended the Nationals’ Christmas party in Parliament on Tuesday.

“We have all moved on from Barnaby, there are about three people left in the party room who care if he stays or goes. We have dealt with net zero and David [Littleproud] has the support of the party room,” the MP said.

Barnaby Joyce has feuded with Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Littleproud, an enemy of Joyce who dumped the former leader from the shadow cabinet after the election, said Joyce wanted time and space and, “we’ve given him that to work through where he wants to be.”

“We want him back into our party room because that’s the contract that he and the people of New England signed, that he was a National Party member, and we hope that he comes back,” Littleproud said on Sky News.

Ley was asked about the burqa stunt and whether Joyce would quit, playing a dead bat.

“Look, the great Wagyu producers in my electorate of Farrer would be a bit worried about the steak on the sandwich press. But putting that aside, Barnaby’s a friend. I’ve known him for many years as a colleague in the Parliament. What he does is entirely up to him and I’ll leave it there,” she said.

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