Nats must be heard, says angry Joyce

Barnaby Joyce has seized on the NSW election result to declare the Nationals must run their own race at the federal election.

Barnaby Joyce on set at Channel Seven during the election coverage on Saturday night. Picture: Damian Shaw

Barnaby Joyce has seized on the NSW election result as evidence of the need for the Nationals to run their own race at the federal election, declaring he will not “sit quietly” in the face of a growing threat from independents and right-wing parties.

Deputy Prime Minister Mich­ael McCormack today sought to play down the NSW result, which saw the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party take a massive swath of the state’s west that was previously held by the Nationals, saying the poll was fought on state issues.

But Mr Joyce and rebel Queensland Nationals, who are demanding a new coal-fired power station in central Queensland, said the loss of Barwon and Murray to the Shooters should be a wake-up for the party federally.

The former Nationals leader said the result in Upper Hunter, which the Nationals retained after a strong campaign over the threat to coalmines posed by Labor and the Greens, was “a dry run for Queensland”.

“You don’t sit quietly before an election when you think that your seat may be at risk. You clearly announce your position in your constituency,” Mr Joyce said.

“We have to clearly announce our own policies in our own seats, not the explanation to our people of the wishes of other people living somewhere else.”

The seat of Barwon falls entirely within Nationals MP Mark Coultan’s seat of Parkes, while Murray sits largely within Liberal MP Sussan Ley’s seat of Farrer.

The Nationals also went backwards in Wagga Wagga, which forms part of Mr McCormack’s seat of Riverina; and in Orange, which overlaps Nationals MP Andrew Gee’s federal seat of Calare.

Mr McCormack said he would “take stock” of the result, but denied the party was in trouble, noting the “solid showings” by the Nationals in many state seats.

“We need to look at that,” he said.

“We need to assess that, as to what ramifications that might have federally.

“But you have to also remember that this was a state election, fought on state issues.”

The Nationals leader said the drought had played into the results in Barwon and Murray, but declared: “Politicians can’t fix that. Political parties can’t fix that.”

Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt, who has threatened a showdown when parliament returns over the need to underwrite coal-fired power, said country voters needed reassurance that the party was “fighting for them” on the issues they cared about.

“Cost of living is all about cost of electricity and making sure it’s affordable,” the Bundaberg-based MP said.

Nationals MP and Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Darren Chester, a strong supporter of Mr McCormack, urged pundits not to write the party off.

“Regional Australia and regional NSW is a vast place. There are issues and we have had a tough time in the drought-hit areas of NSW,” he said.

“As a consequence, people are hurting in those areas and we’ve suffered an electoral result from that and it looks like the Nationals will lose two seats, but across rural and regional Australia, people appreciate the fact that the Nationals are delivering for their comm­unities.”

Rob Oakeshott, a federal independent candidate for the Nationals-held seat of Cowper, on the NSW north coast, said he took “nothing for granted” given the three coastal seats overlapping his electorate were easily retained by the Nationals.

“It looks to be a significant mountain to climb, but we are climbing,” said Mr Oakeshott, a former state and federal MP who defected from the Nationals in 2002.

“There is a sense that people have nothing to lose and everything to gain from trying someone different.”