Matt Canavan reserves right to cross floor against Coalition

Former minister Matt Canavan has reserved the right to cross the floor and vote against government legislation.

Senator Matt Canavan, in Rockhampton on Friday, says getting the best results for Queensland will always be his priority. Picture: Steve Vit

Former resources and northern Australia minister Matt Canavan has reserved the right to cross the floor and vote against government legislation in the Senate, as ­Nationals leader Michael McCormack seeks to placate a group of rebel MPs.

After resigning from cabinet to back former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce in Tuesday’s leadership spill, Senator Canavan said he was prepared to vote against government bills in the interest of his home state of Queensland.

Mr Joyce warned Scott Morrison that the failure to put any of his supporters into the reshuffled ministry had created a breakaway group in the House of Represent­atives that was capable of blocking the ­Coalition’s agenda.

Senator Canavan said he was not acting in concert with any colleagues and fully supported Mr McCormack and the Nationals team.

“As a backbench member of the Coalition, of course I reserve the right to cross the floor on issues that are important to Queensland,” he said. “I’ve crossed the floor before but it would always only be on a matter of great severity where I thought the only way of delivering better outcomes for Queenslanders would be by taking that walk.”

Responding to Mr Joyce and Queensland Nationals MP Llew O’Brien, who said there were more colleagues likely to cross the floor, Mr McCormack said he understood people took such ­action on matters of “real personal principle and conviction”.

But voters wanted “sure, stable government”, he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister also launched a staunch defence of his leadership, declaring there were “a lot of people in regional Australia who like the way I am”.

“(They) like the way I lead and are very happy with the way the National Party is going, otherwise we wouldn’t have retained our 16 seats in the last election,” Mr ­McCormack said.

Challenging the notion that he had not been assertive enough and had failed to cut through in the regions, Mr McCormack said he had helped Nationals MPs Anne Webster and Pat Conaghan get elected in tight three-cornered contests.

He stood by his ­decision to catapult Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt from the backbench into cabinet as Resources, Northern Australia and Water Minister, while failing to reinstall Senator Canavan to the frontbench.

Some colleagues have accused Mr McCormack of failing to extend­ an olive branch to those disenfranchised by his leadership.

“At the end of the day, who would I have promoted?’’ he said. “We’ve got four women who are in their first term. Their turn will come. Senator Canavan resigned (because of his support for Mr Joyce) and resigned over a conflict-of-interest issue he was concerned about. On that basis, he resigned his commission.”

The Prime Minister tried to ­diffuse tensions among Nationals rebels, emphasising his respect for “every single member” of the ­Coalition following Mr Joyce’s threat that he could cross the floor.

“I have no doubt that sort of a decision would never be exercised in a way that would be anything other than based on a very important point of principle on policy,” Mr Morrison said.

Mr O’Brien said crossing the floor was something he considered on every vote and he intended to look closely at the government’s bill to establish a national integrity commission.

Mr McCormack said Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen had messaged him on Thursday night to say he was not part of a plan to oppose government legislation or cross the floor.

The Weekend Australian unders­tands Mr Christensen also contacted Mr Morrison, whose government has a lower-house majority of only two seats, to ­assure him he was not going to cause real trouble.

Mr Joyce and Mr O’Brien would be a powerful-enough bloc to vote down government legislation if they voted with the 74 Labor and crossbench MPs.

Mr McCormack has also tried to cool anger over a potential new rule requiring two-thirds of the Nationals partyroom to vote for a leadership spill before one could occur, saying it would be a matter for MPs and the party organisation “at some point in the future”.

Dr Webster, the member for the Victorian seat of Mallee, had planned to raise the rule in Monday­’s partyroom meeting but the plan — which infuriated Mr Joyce and some of his supporters — was shelved.

“It’s not my plan, it’s not my proposal, I’m not pushing it,” Mr McCormack said. “Having said that, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, it would stop the media speculation.”