Nationals told to show some fight by Larry Anthony

Nationals federal president calls on the party to be ‘fearless’ in the face of left and right-wing extremism and loss of faith in insitutions.

National Party federal president Larry Anthony. Picture: Dan Peled

Nationals federal president Larry Anthony has called on the party to “stand for something” and be “fearless” in the face of left-and right-wing extremism “eating” into its heartland.

The former Howard government minister, who is leaving his post after six years, warned on Saturday that while the Nationals held their ground at the last two elections, winning a fourth term would not be an “easy task”.

Speaking at the Nationals federal conference in Canberra, Mr Anthony said future success must be built on taking on the ­“alternative left agenda of the ALP, Greens and independents”.

“People want to see us fight. You have got to stand for something, and you can’t be all things to all people. You need to fight for what is right, that’s when we have a future,” Mr Anthony said.

“A future for those in the bush, for those communities and families on the coast or in the country. And we need to fight against ­extremism both on the left and the right, which naturally eats into our constituency.”

Mr Anthony, whose late ­father Doug was a former deputy prime minister and leader of the Nationals for 13 years, also called for the defence of “faith in our institutions”, under assault from “cancel culture” and “foreign threats”.

“The Coalition and our party are seeking a fourth term. No easy task. We held our ground in the last two election cycles — an amazing achievement. For future success we must stick to core DNA and our core constituency to govern, defend and take on the alternative left agenda of the ALP, Greens and independent,” he said.

Nationals leader Michael McCormack told the conference the Coalition is backing a new $160m fund, dedicated to the construction of “smaller, targeted dams, weirs and pipelines” across regional Australia.

“We want to start and complete these smaller water projects in every state and territory inside two years. These are the projects which will be of benefit to farmers within two years, to help build our agricultural industry into a $100bn industry by 2030,” Mr McCormack said.

Mr McCormack, who in recent days became Australia’s sixth-longest-serving Deputy Prime Minister, also released new statistics spruiking the benefits of the Inland Rail project.

“The total value of contracts committed for Inland Rail is now past $2bn, stimulating new revenue and growth opportunities for businesses all across Australia. More than 1400 contracts with more than 400 different vendors span 120 local government areas, across every state and territory,” he said.

“Today we have 490 live contracts in progress, valued at more than $1.7bn.”

Nationals federal director Jonathan Hawkes will push back against “small, noisy, irresponsible” political parties and independents seeking to undermine the country party’s policy manifesto. “Noisy independents are all care and no responsibility. They like to make claims about the ­Nationals, falsely claiming they could do a better job,” he will say. “But it’s all hot air and bluster. They are false prophets who claim to be experts on policy issues but in reality, simply cannot deliver for their communities.”

The party strategist will also accuse Labor of focusing on inner-city issues and having “no interest in regional Australia”.