Michael McCormack resists push for Craig Kelly to join Nationals
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has pushed back against Nationals MPs who want Liberal defector Craig Kelly to join their ranks.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has pushed back against Nationals MPs who want Liberal defector Craig Kelly to join their ranks.
Nationals MPs have reignited their plans to bring Mr Kelly into the junior Coalition partner. Many Nationals believe Mr Kelly’s view on energy and climate sits well within their ranks and he would give them a foothold in the outer suburbs.
Mr McCormack — who has faced internal dissent since a leadership challenge in February last year — refused to back Mr Kelly joining his party on Tuesday, and said the former Liberal would sit for the rest of the parliamentary term on the crossbench.
“The Member for Hughes made clear in the House today that he will spend the remainder of the parliamentary term sitting on the crossbench as an independent,” he told The Australian.
“My focus is on regional Australians, their jobs, their aspirations, their future and their vaccine roll-out.
“The Nationals won’t be distracted by events in Canberra – we will keep delivering for the communities in regional, rural and remote Australia we so proudly represent.”
Nationals MPs who have backed Mr Kelly joining the party include former leader and Mr McCormack’s longtime rival Barnaby Joyce.
As speculation swirled around whether he would join The Nationals or Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, Mr Kelly said he remained loyal to Liberal party values.
“It’s hard to look into the future with a crystal ball,” he said on Sky News’ The Bolt Report on Tuesday night.
“It looks like for the future there are certainly principles that I hold the principals of the Liberal party that Sir Robert Menzies upheld. I haven’t changed in any of those.”
Mr Kelly said he would “continue to fight for (his) community” in his new role.
Kelly vows to pursue unorthodox Covid treatments
Craig Kelly says he is open to voting against any government policy he thinks is contrary to the promises the Coalition made at the 2019 election, as he vows to pursue unorthodox COVID-19 treatments as a “Liberal independent.”
Mr Kelly shocked Scott Morrison and his Liberal Party colleagues on Tuesday when he handed a letter of resignation to the Prime Minister in the middle of a joint Coalition party room meeting.
The MP for Hughes - who faced a series of preselection threats in his southern Sydney seat of Hughes - says he has left the Liberal Party so he can more openly support ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as COVID-19 treatments.
The Morrison government and medical authorities do not back those drugs as remedies for coronavirus and Mr Kelly’s continued support for medical views which are contrary to the government’s views led to him receiving a dressing down in Mr Morrison’s office earlier this month.
Mr Kelly told The Australian that ivermectin was the main reason for his split with the Liberals but he is open to voting down Coalition energy policies, especially if Mr Morrison decides to adopt a net zero emissions target in line with other Western countries.
“Everything that we took to the election, I believe were our policies at the last election, I believe (I have) a contract with my constituents to support those policies,” he said on Tuesday.
“A policy on an issue (not taken to the 2019 election) I will vote my conscience on.
“The main reason is the ivermectin issue because this is about people’s lives, this is about the economic damage being done to the nation.
“There are great concerns about energy issues, but I’ll take that one at a time.
“To think you can have this net zero without massively causing massive damage to our economy and handing an competitive advantage to the Communist Party of China in almost every respect, is just a nonsense.
“That is not a policy we had at the last election. I could not support a net zero by 2050.”
Mr Kelly will support the rise in the rake of JobSeeker welfare support and the Morrison government’s grid reliability fund, even if it does not include coal as he would prefer.
Mr Kelly’s move to the crossbench will see the Morrison government lose its one-seat majority on the floor of the House of Representatives, in a potentially significant blow to its ability to legislate.
But Mr Kelly said he would support the government on confidence and supply on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The MP for Hughes has fielded offers from Nationals MPs to join the junior Coalition partner in the past. And minor party politicians like Katter Australia Party leader Bob Katter and One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts stopped by Mr Kelly’s office to offer their support.
Mr Kelly said he did not intend to join any other parties and will run in Hughes as a “Liberal independent.”
“My intention is to sit as a Liberal independent if there is such a thing and argue for the rest of this parliamentary term as frankly and on my conscience as I can. My intention would be to run again in Hughes,” he said.
Mr Kelly also said he was receiving supportive texts from Hughes locals over his decision and claims he would have won preselection if he had stayed in the Liberal Party, and that Mr Morrison never told him he would not have his support in a future preselection fight.
“I believe I would have won a preselection … I’ve got a lot of support from the locals on the ground there, I’ve got a lot of texts already from locals, they’ve been texting me their support,” he said.
The now-independent MP said he did not warn Mr Morrison of his defection before the partyroom meeting because he wanted to look all of his government colleagues “in the eye.”
“This was a toss-up. I thought the first people I should tell were my colleagues … I have a lot of good mates in that party room. We went through a lot of elections together.
“Yes I had an obligation to tell the Prime Minister but I also had an obligation to 100 other colleagues in that party room and look them face-to-face and explain my reasons.”
Zumbo ‘entitled to presumption of innocence’
Mr Kelly has also been under pressure overy the continued employment of long-term staff member Frank Zumbo, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment and bullying towards staff.
On Tuesday, Mr Morrison said he had long expressed concerns about Mr Zumbo to Mr Kelly, and expected him to “deal with that matter”.
Mr Kelly on Tuesday said he had found no basis to the allegations against Mr Zumbo in his investigation of the allegations, and he gave a report to the Prime Minister’s office.
“Mr Zumbo is not one of the reasons I moved to the crossbench. Mr Zumbo is entitled to the presumption of innocence and he has been a target of factional warlords for some time. They have run a slander and smear campaign against him,” he said.
“The Prime Minister asked me to investigate allegations that appeared in the Guardian. It was the first time those allegations had been raised.
“When I investigated them, I found they had little or no substance. In fact there were numerous factual errors. I gave a report then to the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.”
Kelly quits Liberal Party, moves to crossbench
Earlier, Mr Kelly said he would support the government on confidence and supply on the floor of the House of Representatives.
He said his move to the crossbench was not in response to the Prime Minister’s dressing down over support for unproven coronavirus treatments and questioning the safety of vaccinations.
“I have the greatest respect for Scott Morrison,” he told Sky News. “I hope he goes on to be one of our longest serving and greatest Prime Ministers.
“I’ll support the government, naturally of course, on all matters of supply, confidence.”
Mobile users: Click here to read Mr Kelly’s letter to the PM
Mr Kelly added: “There’s nothing I can see on the agenda papers that I’m going to be objecting to strenuously on what the government is doing.
“The government should be able to continue as it was and continue to function but I just feel that if I’m to speak out and use my voice as best I can, this is the best decision for myself and for the people I represent.”
Mr Kelly defended pushing controversial treatments for coronavirus, claiming one of the “greatest mistakes that has been made in this country and also the world” was prohibiting doctors from administering ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.
“I believe this was a terrible error.... I’ve been labelled an anti-vaxxer which is just slanderous smear,” he said.
“I support the vaccine program, but in concert, to use the words of our highest immunologists, these other treatments should be used in concert with the vaccine.”
PM: Coalition ‘will continue to function’ without Kelly
Mr Morrison said the Coalition would “continue to function successfully” after Mr Kelly’s resignation.
Unveiling the government’s rise of welfare payments shortly, Mr Morrison told reporters nothing would distract the government from its commitment to save livelihoods.
“The government will continue to function, as it has successfully,” he said.
“As the government has led Australia through the worst situation we’ve seen since the Second World War, we will continue to do so undistracted.”
Mr Morrison, who recently cautioned Mr Kelly over his support for unproven coronavirus treatments, said he set out “clear expectations” for the Hughes MP.
“He’d given me a number of commitments in relation to that. He no longer felt that he could meet those commitments.” he said.
“He has said that his actions were slowing the government down and he believed the best way for him to proceed was to remove himself from the party room and otherwise provide support to the government so it could continue to function as it so successfully has, which he says is something he remains committed to.
“So I would expect him to conduct himself in that way.”
Mr Morrison said he didn’t anticipate that Mr Kelly would join the Nationals’ party room.
The Australian has previously reported Nationals MPs had considered adopting Mr Kelly in an attempt to gain a foothold in outer suburbs.
Asked if he had any concerns, Mr Kelly would join the Nationals , Mr Morrison said “No I don’t, but that’s really a matter for others.”
Mr Morrison, who previously saved Mr Kelly from electoral defeat in his southern Sydney seat of Hughes, said Mr Kelly’s pre-selection was a matter for the Hughes MP.
Morrison not forewarned
Coalition MPs told The Australian that most MPs were shocked by the news and Scott Morrison indicated to the partyroom he had not been forewarned about Mr Kelly’s defection.
Mr Kelly has been under pressure over his promotion of unorthodox COVID-19 treatments and theories, and faced a serious preselection threat before the next election.
The Prime Minister this month publicly rebuked the Liberal MP for the south Sydney seat of Hughes for his promotion of unorthodox coronavirus treatments and ordered him to stick to the government health advice, after he went on a podcast with anti-vaccination chef Pete Evans.
Mr Kelly told The Australian last week the Prime Minister’s edict applied only to the vaccine, and he would continue to support early treatment drug options even if they were not backed by chief medical officers.
Mr Morrison had effectively left Mr Kelly — whom he has previously saved from electoral defeat in his seat — to fend for himself in his preselection and rebuild support among branch members to salvage his political future.
Since then, Nationals MPs have voiced support for Mr Kelly and some want him to defect to the junior Coalition partner and run as a Nationals MP in Hughes should his local Liberal preselectors disendorse him.
Liberal MPs said Craig Kelly had conceded his conduct as an MP had not always “helped” the Coalition Government and praised Scott Morrison’s inspiration at the end of 2018 after taking over from Malcolm Turnbull.
But Mr Kelly said he had always acted on his principles and conscience and had no choice but to resign from the Liberal Party.
Although he handed his resignation to Mr Morrison, Mr Kelly said he wanted to see the Coalition win the next election.
More Coverage
Burke mulls cancelling visa of academic who called Oct 7 ‘a celebration’
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke is considering the visa status of a US-based academic who attended Monday’s Hizb ut-Tahrir-associated rally in Sydney, praising the Houthi rebels and saying Hamas's attacks were a day of 'growth' for Palestinians.
Israel a ‘miracle’, says Labor senator
Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill has condemned the rise of anti-Semitism, as politicians from both sides of politics paused to commemorate October 7 in Canberra.