Senator Matt Canavan speaks out after being unshackled from Ministerial portfolios

The former resources and Northern Australia minister has indicated he will be running his own race now that he is no longer a minister, as he vowed to “fight fire with fire”.

THE former resources and Northern Australia minister has indicated he will be running his own race now that he is no longer a minister, as he vowed to “fight fire with fire”.

Unbeholden to the constraints of his ministerial oath, fallen Senator Matt Canavan has unleashed in a social media post against the “radical green activists” holding Queensland’s mining and agriculture industries to ransom because of a “few colourful corals” beyond the shoreline.

Mr Canavan, who relished his portfolios but risked them to back former boss Barnaby Joyce’s failed Nationals leadership bid on Monday, has released his frustrations arguing that indigenous people would “have had nothing to worry about” if “modern green tape” had been around when Captain Cook arrived.

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Senator Matt Canavan announced on Monday night he had not declared his link to the North Queensland Cowboys football club at the time it gained the loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. He stepped down from his position on the front bench. Senator Matt Canavan in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Gary Ramage

On Monday morning Senator Canavan waved off rumours of a spill, but had by evening resigned from his portfolios because he could no longer support Nationals leader Michael McCormack, declaring instead that Mr Joyce was the “firebrand” to get the job done.

“I am disappointed that my ministerial career has ended in this way, it’s not something I expected when I kissed my wife goodbye on Sunday, but a week is a long time in politics,” he told the Bulletin.

The Rockhampton-based Senator will now reposition himself to take the fight up on a range of issues, particularly for North and Central Queensland, including defending the industries of coal, sugar and cotton, all of which he said were “under attack”.

“I believe we must fight fire with fire. When we do, we normally win,” he said.

“That’s what I did on Adani. I didn’t get intimidated, I didn’t back down to the bullies and now we have a fantastic mine creating thousands of jobs in central and north Queensland.”

The Senator didn’t rule out crossing the floor of parliament, something he is able to do again now that he is no longer a minister, but said would only do so on issues impacting constituents, not for “overblown” rumours about internal party leadership tensions.

He threw his support behind his successor, Hinkler MP Keith Pitt, and said he would be helping his Nationals colleague through the transition.

Originally published as Senator Matt Canavan speaks out after being unshackled from Ministerial portfolios