Pitt urged to wait before making call on future

DUMPED Federal MP Keith Pitt has told colleagues he is "determined” to leave the party - as colleagues urge him to give it 48 hours before making a call.

Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt. Picture: Mike Knott

DUMPED Liberal National Party frontbencher Keith Pitt has told colleagues he is "determined" to leave the party - as colleagues urge him to give it 48 hours before making a call.

But there are fears in the LNP that southern Nationals are stirring troubles against Queensland after the state received additional influence in the Government from gaining an extra Cabinet position.

This week's reshuffle, which saw Mr Pitt and Victorian Nationals MP Darren Chester dumped from the frontbench and the elevation of first-term LNP MP David Littleproud, has caused strife in the Nationals.

Many in the party are trying to paint it as an anti-Queensland sentiment, with the state earning an extra Cabinet position and Victoria losing one, rather than anger at party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce's captain's call.

But one Nationals MP said Mr Joyce faced significant unrest in the party room over the dumping of Mr Chester and Mr Pitt, and Mr Joyce needed to address it.

One Nationals MP said Mr Pitt was still greatly upset over his demotion and wanted to leave the Nationals party room.

He counselled him to think about it for 48 hours, but said Mr Pitt was "determined" to leave.

"I just hope he can put it aside and come back," he said.

"When I spoke to him he was pretty determined to make a move. He wanted to leave the Nationals party room."

Another said what Mr Pitt chose to do was up to him, but they advised him "politics is brutal".

If he left the LNP to sit as an independent it would send the Turnbull administration into a minority government.

His agitation has lost him support of many of his parliamentary colleagues and LNP administration itself.

One Liberal MP said threatening to quit after being demoted was the "one of the most self-absorbed" things you can do in politics.

The drama in the Nationals took attention off the reshuffle, in which two Queenslanders were sworn into Cabinet yesterday.

Mr Littleproud was sworn in as Agriculture and Water Minister, while Groom MP and former state government minister John McVeigh officially started as Regional Development, Territories and Local Government Minister.

Other changes included Revenue and Financial Services Minister Kelly O'Dwyer, a mother of two, who took on additional responsibility as Minister for Women.