Michael McCormack keeps door open to Nationals leadership comeback

A former Nationals leader has refused to rule out a return to the top job after the party threw Australian politics into a spin.

EXCLUSIVE

Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack has refused to rule out a return to the leadership, adding he would be foolish to run “a red line” through the idea.

The former deputy prime minister, who Mr Littleproud recently dumped from the Nationals proposed frontbench, has told news.com.au he backed the current leadership team.

But he said it would be silly to rule out ever returning to the leadership in the future amid the utter chaos in Coalition ranks.

“Oh, it depends under what circumstances,’’ he told news.com.au.

“I’m not going to return to the leadership, I’m not gonna put my name up there just to be knocked off or make a gig in myself. I wouldn’t do that.”

A gig, as defined by Eton slang, is a foolish person or an odd person.

Amid reports that Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce has privately suggested Mr McCormack should return to sort out the Coalition mess, he admitted journalists ask him “all the time.”

“I mean, it would be stupid to actually draw a red line in your name forever more because you never know,’’ Mr McCormack said.

“Politics is very fluid, and particularly in modern politics, where things just happen very, very quickly. 

Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack (left) says it would be “foolish” to rule out a future leadership return amid Coalition chaos.

“I mean, why would you just, why would you say, ‘I’m never, ever going to lead the National Party again?.’

“Because the next moment, something calamitous might happen, and you might be the one that they call on, and then all of a sudden, you and then, of course, they bring out the footage or the quote of you saying.

“That’s all on the record, I don’t do off the record,’’ he added.

A former journalist, Mr McCormack is a huge Elvis Presley fan and sometimes performs himself in Elvis regalia.

But it was all work and no play when he was Nationals leader the first time around.

“I mean, I’ve had three great years as the leader of the National Party in government,’’ Mr McCormack said.

“We got a lot of stuff done. We had, we had everything thrown at us, bush fires, floods, cyclones, Covid-19. 

“But look, you know, David’s the leader. I supported him in the leadership ballot.”

A known Elvis Presley fan, Michael McCormack (right) has performed in full Elvis regalia — but says it was ‘all work, no play’ during his time leading the Nationals.

Mr McCormack has cryptically declared he is “ambitious” for his party’s leader David Littleproud, echoing Scott Morrison’s comments about Malcolm Turnbull during the final days of his government.

“I’m ambitious for him,” McCormack told ABC Radio Canberra when asked his support for Mr Littleproud.

“It’s been messy, it’s been really messy and for people on the outside looking in, they just wonder what the hell is going on.”

Asked about the remarks, he admitted they were a “tongue in cheek” reference to Scott Morrison.

“It’s my dry sense of humour,’’ he laughed. 

“Besides, I mean, you realise, I mean, he’s taken me off the front bench and, okay, that’s his prerogative,’’ he said in relation to David Littleproud’s leadership.

“But, you know, you gotta, you can’t all be, I mean, honestly, you can’t all be just boring and straight bat everything. And again, you got to give sort of some red meat to the journos.

“I think there’s been fault from a few areas in this whole messy process,

and there have been missteps. There’s no question about that.”

Warning on “crying wolf”

Mr McCormack said that Mr Littleproud was working to do a deal with the Liberals on four key areas.

“He would consider that a victory of sorts, I suppose,’’ he said.

“But the trouble is, what happens next time there’s a die in the ditch issue for the Nationals? And let me tell you, knowing the Nationals, that won’t be far away, you know, somebody will, will say something else. 

“And then where do you go there? It’s like, it’s, you know, it’s, you can’t then threaten to blow up the Coalition again, because you look like the boy that cried wolf.”

Barnaby Joyce and the “spiv”

Another Nationals dismissed the latest rumblings suggesting that Matt Canavan had about four leadership votes and suggesting if Barnaby Joyce swapped to Michael McCormack he would have “about five.”

Barnaby Joyce reportedly thinks David Littleproud is a ‘little spiv’. Picture: Getty Images

“Barnaby hates David Littleproud. He thinks he’s a little spiv,’’ the Nationals MP said.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley is expected to win the support of her party room to offer in-principle support to the Nationals’ demands to lock in support for nuclear power amid accusations she had “a gun to her head.”

Liberals powwow

As the Nationals and the Coalition attempt to heal their divisions after their “split” announced earlier this week, party elders are urging Nationals leader David Littleproud to sort out the mess.

But the commitment to nuclear power will extend to a simple commitment to remove the legal ban on nuclear energy in Australia at a minimum, with a review of the remaining policy going forward.

As such, it is a significantly watered-down version of Peter Dutton’s plan to build multiple nuclear power plants across Australia, an idea former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had described as “crazy”.

Liberal leader Sussan Ley is chasing a compromise on nuclear energy after claims the Liberal Party had ‘a gun to its head’ during Coalition talks. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

None of those ideas are likely to become law anytime soon, which the Coalition – which announced they were splitting this week – now reduced to a rump even if they agree to come back together.

The second commitment the Nationals sought was agreement on the $20 Billion Regional Australia Future Fund, which will include a $1 billion annual budget allocation until the Fund is matured and able to draw down at least $1 billion per year.

The third was an agreement on court-ordered divestiture powers for major supermarkets and ‘big box’ retailers.

The final demand was Universal Service Obligation reforms to broaden the minimum standards to include mobile tower infrastructure and reception, repair time frames and expectations and minimum voice and internet standards.

‘A fight about nothing’

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is accusing the Nationals of “holding a gun to [the] head” of the Liberal Party over a “fight about nothing” given none of the ideas will be legislated anytime soon.

“Policies are of academic interest only until such time as we get close to an election … This is a fight about nothing,’’ he said.

“They’ve just done enormous harm for no purpose at all, the Nationals, by blowing it up in this way.

“It’s really, really unwise [and] stupid politically. The National Party is treating the Liberal Party with zero respect and trying to stand over them, and if Sussan Ley goes along with it … everybody will be saying this is just another case of the tail wagging the dog.”

Malcolm Turnbull slammed the Nationals’ nuclear push as ‘crazy’ and accused them of treating the Liberals with ‘zero respect’ in a ‘fight about nothing.’ Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Nationals were now “holding a gun to the Liberal Party’s head”, he said.

He described nuclear power as a “truly crazy idea” but he added that agreeing to end a moratorium was acceptable given there was “no prospect of anyone in the private sector ever building a nuclear power plant here”.

“The anger-tainment ecosystem in which the right wing of politics exists nowadays, they got what they wanted. They got Peter Dutton as the leader and they got control of the party, and they have burned it to the ground,” he said.

The Liberals and Nationals’ first attempt at reconciliation arrived just two days after their bombshell break-up and has delayed the announcement of the Liberals frontbench.

Former Liberal minister Richard Colebeck said a lot of Liberals were “really cranky having a gun held to our heads”.

“It’s just a huge frustration that we as a party have been put in this situation,” he said.

“Having said that, we all recognise the value of being in a Coalition. But there’s a way to go about that and the way the Nationals have, it’s just not the way.”

Originally published as Michael McCormack keeps door open to Nationals leadership comeback