‘Comfortable in my own skin’: Littleproud shoots down leadership speculation

Nationals leader David Littleproud is staring down a whispering campaign about his leadership, declaring he has the confidence of the party room amid rumblings of a challenge from the camp of former party head Barnaby Joyce.

Littleproud played down speculation over his leadership when he spoke to this masthead on Monday, arguing he was notching wins for the party within the Coalition.

Nationals Leader David Littleproud: “People will want us to stick by the 2050 [net zero] agreement.”Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Asked if he feared a potential coup, Littleproud said he had no reason to suspect a challenge to his position.

“No, I have no reason to believe that. I’m just simply getting on with the job,” he said.

“I am comfortable in my own skin. Since I became leader, I asked for a national energy summit that has now got even the Liberals across the line in wanting to explore nuclear energy.”

According to sources who asked to remain anonymous so they could comment freely, Joyce can count on about six votes including himself, out of 21 MPs and senators.

News Corp reports in recent weeks have claimed Littleproud’s leadership is under threat due to his failure to secure an ongoing commitment for $30 billion in funding for Nationals pet projects.

Ahead of the 2022 federal election, then-prime minister Scott Morrison cut a deal with Joyce – then-deputy prime minister – in exchange for the Nationals’ support for a Coalition policy to reach net zero emissions by 2050. This masthead reported more than $20 billion had been promised in the March 2022 federal budget for dams, regional economic stimulus and a rail link through Queensland coal fields.

News Corp reported there was a backlash against Littleproud from his colleagues for failing to secure a commitment from Liberal leader Peter Dutton to honour the deal should the Coalition form government.

But Littleproud has hit back at these claims, saying the Coalition could not make this pledge from the opposition.

“We’re in opposition, we’re not in government. We don’t have the ability to secure funding, but obviously, we’ll move forward after probably the next two budgets that this government will hand down and we’ll work through a position from there,” he said.

Joyce told this masthead the speculation had not come from him.

“I’m not in the expenditure review committee and I don’t know the deliberations and exactly what was said there, so I don’t know the exact truth of it,” Joyce said.

“It’s very important though that what we bargained for we keep, because my expectation of course is that people will want us to stick by the 2050 [net zero] agreement.”

Parkes MP Mark Coulton said it was “disappointing to see these stories popping up” but in his role as the Nationals’ whip, responsible for organising the party room, “I can’t see any threat to Littleproud”.

“David’s got very strong support – the clear majority of his party,” Coulton said.

Hinkler MP Keith Pitt, who backed Joyce in a leadership challenge in 2021 when he deposed then-leader Michael McCormack, has also been mentioned as a potential rival for Littleproud.

“While there has been some very generous commentary, and of course some not so generous, you can rule me out,” Pitt said.

“I haven’t asked a single member of the Nationals party room for their vote. ”

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