NT Nationals weigh retribution against Price for defection to Liberals

Both Coalition parties have been plunged into open warfare by conservative senator Matt Canavan’s challenge for the Nationals leadership and party officials weighing up dropping Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from their Senate ticket for defecting to the Liberals to support Angus Taylor.

Canavan’s unlikely push to oust David Littleproud means the Nationals and Liberals will hold leadership duels on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, after Taylor and Sussan Ley on Friday declared their candidacy for the Liberal role.

Challengers: Nationals David Littleproud and Matt Canavan, and Liberals Sussan Ley and Angus Taylor.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Flavio Brancaleone

Price’s move from the Nationals to the Liberals has ramifications for both leadership contests and could reduce the salary and office entitlements of at least one Nationals senator, infuriating her colleagues.

According to parliamentary rules, parties need at least five senators to have a party whip – who is responsible for party discipline, paid more and has a larger office – but Price’s departure combined with Nationals senator Perrin Davey’s loss in the election takes the party to four.

Price, the popular but controversial Indigenous senator, declared on Thursday she would shift to the Liberal Party and is expected to run as Taylor’s deputy.

Four Coalition sources, unable to speak publicly about internal party workings, said the Country Liberal Party, which Price represents in the Northern Territory, was considering whether to disendorse Price or opt not to pick her as a candidate at the next election.

Price, who was contacted for comment about the threats, defended her defection to the Liberal Party in a radio interview on Friday, rejecting claims she had moved to further her ambition.

“I wanted to do it in a respectful way, so I did speak to my colleagues,” she said.

“[Being part of the Liberal Party] is something that I wanted to do from the first time I was elected,” she told 2GB. “I’ve been welcomed by Sussan Ley to the Liberal Party room, which I’m very grateful for.”

Price was coy about whether she would run for a leadership position but said that former prime minister Tony Abbott had supported her move to the Liberals. “Tony has long supported me,” Price said.

However, Nigel Scullion, a CLP senator for nearly 20 years until the 2019 election, cautioned against drastic action, saying Price’s action was “not the end of the world” because she remained a CLP member of parliament regardless of which party she sat with in Canberra.

Former CLP president Shane Stone said the defection “left a sour taste” in his mouth.
“She’s had tremendous support from the National Party,” Stone said, pointing out that Littleproud secured her a portfolio to which the party was not entitled.

The injection of Price into the Liberal leadership contest has inflamed an already bitter battle that threatens ongoing party unity, regardless of the winner.

Ley’s supporters claimed Price, who vowed to “make Australia great again” during the campaign, joining Taylor’s ticket had worked against the shadow treasurer because uncommitted MPs were not attracted to the idea of the senator taking on such a senior role.

The race is tight, however, and Taylor’s backers hoped Price’s popularity among Liberal branch members would make it harder for MPs to vote against him after trade spokesman Dan Tehan ruled himself out of the leadership race on Friday. “I love the Liberal Party … and I will work hard and serve in whatever capacity I am asked to rebuild our party,” Tehan said.

In their first public remarks on the contest, neither Taylor nor Ley took responsibility for the election result, and both made pitches to Australian women.

“We did let the women of Australia down,” Ley said on Sunrise on Friday morning.

”I’m determined and convinced that I am the right person to lead the party forward at this time, and I think my appointment would send a strong signal to the women of Australia, but it’s about much more than that,” she said. “It is about the policy offering. It is about what modern Australia expects of us as Liberals. It is about working collegiately across our party, and it is about a strong work ethic, something that I’m known for in our party and in our country.”

Taylor said if he was successful in his bid for the Liberal leadership, which will be decided at a party room meeting on Tuesday, he would draw on experience from his business career of overhauling companies for consultancy firm McKinsey. He has previously been criticised by some colleagues for the party’s sparse economic agenda taken to the election.

“In opposition, I’ve been on the front line of economic debates,” he said. “In my career, I’ve helped rebuild organisations and created successful businesses.”

“We must bring in new talent that reflects modern Australia – especially more women.

“We must operate like a campaign every day – with strong candidates, clearer messages, smarter strategies and greater fundraising.

“We need to modernise our organisation from the ground up and back our volunteers and members, who give so much to our cause.“

Canavan – a former minister who has turned into a rebellious senator focused on immigration and free speech – also announced on Friday that he would challenge Littleproud for his party’s leadership despite having minimal support in the party.

“We should scrap the futile and unachievable goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” he said in a statement.

“Net zero makes everything more expensive, and it is not helping the environment given that the US, China and India are no longer even paying lip service to it.

“Our plan should be based on how we can save the country, not save the party. I am standing for my party’s leadership so that I can tell my kids I did everything I could to fight for a better life for them.”

Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce underwent surgery for prostate cancer this week and is not planning to run against Littleproud at Monday’s party room meeting in Canberra. Canavan was chief of staff for Joyce between 2010 and 2013.

Joyce backed the principle of having a contest for the leadership, but stopped short of endorsing Canavan.

“I’m glad there is a contest for leadership. It is an incredibly honourable position, incredibly important for our nation and seminal if we are to put ourselves in a position to be considered as the next government,” Joyce told this masthead.

Nationals MPs argued privately that Littleproud was weakened by Price’s defection because he failed to avert it despite Price telling colleagues as far back as 2022 she was eager to join the Liberals.

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