David Littleproud defends Covid rollout but admits LNP lost women before election

National Party Leader David Littleproud has defended the previous government’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout, but said the LNP must work to regain the voters lost before May’s decisive election loss.

National Party Leader David Littleproud says Australia was deliberately slower at delivering the Covid-19 vaccine because the government “wanted to make sure before we asked you to put your arm out, we knew what we were putting in it.”

And he said the LNP needed to own up to its mistakes following its bruising election loss and acknowledge female voters snubbed the party.

In a broad-ranging speech at the party’s state convention in Brisbane on Saturday, Mr Littleproud spruiked the Coalition’s handling of the pandemic while pointing to the criticism it received about the vaccine rollout.

National Party Leader David Littleproud at the state LNP convention. Picture: David Clark

“Let me tell you, we were behind the rest of the world because we wanted to make sure before we asked you to put your arm out, we knew what we were putting in it,” he told hundreds of party faithful.

“Our health systems were protected by the fact that we worked with the states to make sure that we could keep you safe if you did have to go to hospital for Covid or you fell off the back of the ute and you broke your leg.

“We got back to first principles of making sure that health service was there to support you.

“And then when it was ready to go out, you had the confidence to put your arm out and now we are one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, not because we rushed, not because we had to, because our health systems were falling down.”

His comments follow a concession by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison who last year conceded the vaccine rollout had been a race following criticism by Labor.

Mr Littleproud said the LNP needed to look at what had caused the bruising election defeat in May.

“And understand the mistakes we’ve made, to own up to them, to listen, to learn and to rebuild that trust,” he said.

“We have to understand the result was provided to us was the one the Australian people believe in and we cannot turn our back on that.

“So there’ll be a time for us to reflect and to understand what went wrong and how we do things better, whether that be from the Liberal Party or the National Party.

“To understand that there are cohorts within our community that left us, particularly women and we have to do better, we have to do way better.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was not at the convention as he is on leave overseas.

Capricornia MP Michelle Landry told party faithful that the LNP had a problem with women in the community.

“We do have a problem getting our female politicians but also that we have a problem with women out in the electorate, and I certainly have been speaking to our leaders about this, because the feedback that I have been receiving is that there is a major issue out there with women that are over 50 that have been married, divorce, they’ve got no superannuation, they’ve got no savings,” she said.

“And … they’re looking to us for help and I do believe that David (Littleproud) … and his team will win the next election … and I think we seriously have to look at what policies we can put in place to actually help get that female vote back but also to help them because you’ve got women living in cars – women and children – and I think we’ve got to really step up to the mark with is.”