Michael McCormack fights for NT Senate seat after internal backlash
The Deputy PM says he expects whoever wins the Coalition’s NT Senate seat will sit in the Nationals partyroom, amid anger from MPs.
Michael McCormack has declared whoever wins the Coalition’s Northern Territory Senate spot at the election should sit with the Nationals, after his own MPs accused him of handing the Liberals a chance to claim the prized seat.
The anger from some Nationals MPs came after Alice Springs deputy mayor Jacinta Nampijinpa Price confirmed she would nominate to become the Country Liberal Party’s No 1 Senate candidate, setting up an ugly preselection stoush with sitting Nationals senator Sam McMahon.
While convention has been the CLP senator sits in the Nationals partyroom, Ms Price – considered more a Liberal than a Nat – has kept her options open and said she would take direction from the party.
Queensland Nationals senator Matthew Canavan said the junior Coalition partner should “never be shy” in publicly stating what the party deserved.
“I would expect the leader of the Nationals to back the Nationals in maintaining the status quo that the CLP senator sits in the National Party, as has always been the case,” he said.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce warned if the Nats lost the NT Senate seat to the Liberal Party it could put in doubt its party status in the Senate and the number of ministerial positions it was handed in the Coalition agreement.
“For the National Party itself not having one representative west of the eastern states reduces a regional party’s capacity to be fully conversant on such issues as the live cattle trade – an industry as a Territorian vet that Senator McMahon has been a champion for,” he said.
The Australian on Tuesday asked Mr McCormack, the Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister, if he believed whoever won the NT Senate spot should sit in the Nationals partyroom but he did not answer the question.
Neither did he say if he would support Senator McMahon’s bid for preselection and campaign with or for her before the CLP candidate was chosen on June 26.
One Nationals MP said there was “red hot anger” within the party over Mr McCormack’s equivocating. They said he had left the seat open to negotiation with the Liberal Party.
Following criticism from his MPs, Mr McCormack made it clear on Wednesday he expected the tradition of the CLP senator sitting in the Nationals partyroom to continue.
He also said he supported Senator McMahon and would back the person who wins the preselection battle.
“Hopefully that will be Sam,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
“I would like to think whoever wins this preselection battle will sit with the Nationals – the Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) knows my view, the CLP knows my view, Sam McMahon knows my view, the partyroom knows my view.
“I don’t get a vote in the (preselection) process. We (the Nationals) are very democratic, the CLP is very democratic in how they do it, they run their own process and they will vote who they decide will best represent their interests.”
Warren Mundine, who was a star recruit of Mr Morrison’s at the last election and considers Ms Price a close friend, said she had every right to contest the Senate preselection amid pressure from Nationals for her to run in a lower house seat.
Nationals MPs claim Ms Price’s high-profile makes her a better candidate for the marginal Labor-held electorates of Lingiari, which she unsuccessfully contested at the last election, or Solomon.
“She has every right to stand,” Mr Mundine, who failed to win the NSW seat of Gilmore at the 2019 poll, said.
“We need smart, well-grounded individuals (in federal parliament). At the same time she’s an indigenous voice and a woman. I’m going to write a letter to the CLP in support of her nomination.”
Read Mr McCormack’s full response to The Australian on June 1:
Senator Dr Sam McMahon is a tireless champion for the Northern Territory and the more than 240,000 people who call it home. I remain supportive of Senator McMahon as I do with all elected members of the Nationals’ partyroom.
I will continue to be a regular visitor to the Northern Territory at the invitation of the Country Liberal Party.
The CLP holds democratic preselections for the Senate in the lead up to every federal election. Just as the Nationals’ membership does, the CLP’s grassroots members choose their candidates.
Any eligible member of the CLP is afforded the opportunity to contest Senate preselection.
I will respect the decision made by the CLP’s grassroots members.
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