Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien backs Matt Canavan for Nationals Leader, slams Paris Agreement

Maverick Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien has again gone rogue, declaring he will back a new leader for the Nationals on Monday and refusing to “go down in history as someone who stayed silent” on “flawed” policies.

Nationals leader David Littleproud, Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien and Senator Matt Canavan.

Days after blasting the Coalitions federal election campaign, member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien has again gone rogue, declaring he wants the current Nationals leader gone and move to Nt Zero

After being elected as the Wide Bay representative for the fourth time, Mr O’Brien announced on Saturday it was time to “call bulls**t on the Paris Agreement and he would be voting for Senator Matt Canavan when the Nationals held a party room meeting on Monday.

Maranoa MP David Littleproud has been the leader of the part since May, 2022.

“I will be voting for Matt Canavan to become leader of the Nationals,” Mr O’Brien said in a statement on his official Facebook page.

“David and I entered parliament together in 2016.

Federal Member for Wide Bay Llew O'Brien. Picture: Christine Schindler

“Since then, he has done outstanding work — both as a minister in government and as leader of the Nationals.

“He has a strong list of achievements and is a capable and worthy leader.

“I consider David a friend, and this decision has not been easy.

“I have supported his leadership over the last term and, if he wins the ballot on Monday, he will continue to have my support.

“However, I am supporting Matt Canavan because he is also an exceptional candidate for leadership — and because, like me, he recognises that the targets under the Paris Agreement are not in Australia’s national interest.

Labor’s plan for an 82 per cent renewable energy grid is already proving to be unreliable, unaffordable, and incapable of supporting a modern industrial economy.

“When every segment of the energy market — generation, transmission, components, and even the consumers — must be propped up with taxpayer subsidies, and prices are still among the highest in the world, the failure of the government’s energy policy is plain to see.

Senator Matt Canavan at the early voting booth in Mackay. Photo: Fergus Gregg

“That is why I have consistently advocated for Australia to play to its strengths: delivering low-cost, reliable, dispatchable power from our abundant natural resources. Australia should have the cheapest electricity in the world.

“Instead, Labor’s warped ideology allows our uranium and coal to be exported overseas — powering the economies of our competitors — while shaming their use here at home.

“It is sheer hypocrisy. Labor governments are happy to accept coal and uranium royalties to fund their budgets but refuse to let Australian families and businesses benefit from the same resources.

“There are better, more responsible ways to secure our nation’s energy future than flattening agricultural land with solar panels, building intrusive wind farms, or carving up the countryside with high-voltage transmission lines.

“This is not just a policy debate — it’s a matter of national strength and independence.

“While Australia is refusing to build new coal-fired power stations, China is moving full steam ahead.

“In 2024 alone, it began construction on 95 gigawatts of coal-fired generation — more than our entire national energy system across all sources combined.

“Yet we remain told to shut ours down in the name of climate responsibility.

“At the same time, Australian taxpayers are funding China’s so-called ‘climate adaptation’ projects through our contributions to the United Nations Green Climate Fund.

Federal Nationals party leader David Littleproud in Alice Springs May 1, 2025. Picture: Gera Kazakov

“That same China recently sent warships into Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone, just 150 miles off the coast of Sydney, and conducted live-fire exercises without notice — forcing the diversion of 49 domestic flights.

“China will always act in its own interest, and I do not believe that includes reaching net zero emissions by 2060.

“We are in an era of growing global instability — with war in Europe, Russian eyeing off military expansion into our region, and trade tensions escalating.

“It will not be the nations that most faithfully implement the socialist green-left’s doctrine that emerge stronger.

“It will be the most resilient and self-reliant.

“Aspiring to make the world a better place is something we all support — but the Paris Agreement and net zero targets will not deliver that outcome.

“I refuse to go down in history as someone who stayed silent while flawed and illogical policies were imposed — policies that future generations will view as examples of virtue-signalling at the expense of common sense.

Senator Matt Canavan.

“Australia is a great nation — resourceful, principled, and capable of balancing environmental responsibility with the national interest.

“But as long as we are bound by the Paris Agreement and its targets, we are limiting our country’s ability to chart its own future.

“I use an old Australian colloquialism when I say, it’s time to call ‘bulls**t’ on the Paris Agreement and that is what Matt and I are doing.”

It comes after Mr O’Brien described his party’s election campaign as a “giant f*** up” after it delivered its worst result in 70 years.

Mr O’Brien said he could feel the public’s unhappiness which led to the swing against the LNP throughout the campaign.

“People are doing it tough, they’re upset,” Mr O’Brien said.

“They’re paying some of the highest electricity prices in the world.”

He said a big part of the party’s failure at the polls was its commitment to net zero carbon emissions, a policy which was contributing significantly to higher electricity prices and the cost-of-living crisis.

He said as long as this policy remained on the party’s table, he would refuse to take up any shadow positions on offer.

“I no longer sit with the party on that issue,” Mr O’Brien said.

“It’s a massive policy that is reshaping the country that will have negative effects for generations to come.”

Mr Canavan and Mr Littleproud have been contacted for comment.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Mr Canavan posted: “Thanks Llew. You are absolutely right. We must get out of these international agreements that are holding Australia back!”

Originally published as Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien backs Matt Canavan for Nationals Leader, slams Paris Agreement