Ex-Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack turn on leader David Littleproud over net zero

Barnaby Joyce says his campaign to end the commitment to net zero has nothing to do with trying to push out Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Barnaby Joyce used a fiery interview to dismiss as “salacious” speculation that he is using his campaign to abandon the commitment to net zero to force out David Littleproud as Nationals leader.

Mr Joyce has been accused, alongside another former Nationals leader and rival Michael McCormack, of publicly undermining Mr Littleproud by raising their opposition to net zero and proposing a private members Bill.

In an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday night, Mr Joyce said the media was ignoring the issues regional Australians had with net zero to beat up a leadership challenge story.

“That’s verballing. It’s not,” he said in reply to a question from presenter Sarah Ferguson that he was “clearly making moves, destabilising the leadership”.

“It’s quite clear what I’m doing – read my Facebook and everything – is about dealing with net zero and dealing with transmission lines, swindle factories.

“That’s sort of making a salacious guise to sort of say cover up the net zero debate and let’s all talk about something else.

“It’s about net zero and looking after this nation and regional people.”

Barnaby Joyce has caused a stir by challenging the Nationals to drop the net zero commitment. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former foe Michael McCormack has backed Barnaby Joyce over his net zero Bill. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Currently Australia must reach net zero by 2050, as per the Paris Climate Accords.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has previously said he was “confident” Australia would reach the interim 2030 goal of reducing emissions by 43 per cent, through renewables.

That has caused issues in the regions, particularly involving wind farms.

Mr Joyce said earlier on Wednesday it was not uncommon for him to “lose his sh*t” over wind farm developments, and Mr McCormack said he believed renewables companies were “dividing families” by trying to attract local support for large-scale wind and solar projects.

Mr Joyce also drummed up support for Mr McCormack to replace Mr Littleproud as leader after the Coalition’s election disaster. Mr McCormack has not ruled out running for the job in future.

Mr Littleproud has faced mounting leadership pressure from within his party since he briefly divorced the Nationals from their long-time Liberal partners back in May over four demands that newly elected Opposition Leader Sussan Ley could not promise would be met.

Coalition leaders David Littleproud and Sussan Ley have trodden along rocky ground over the past three months. Picture: Supplied

Mr Littleproud demanded the Liberals maintain their support for nuclear energy and a $20bn regional future fund, force the divestiture of supermarkets, and ensure mobile phone coverage was reliable across regional Australia.

The Nationals and Liberals eventually made up just seven days later in a move that was internally described at the time by a party source as a “train wreck”.

Since then, the Nationals have been battling to maintain an image that resembles party solidarity – but comments by once-bitter rivals Mr Joyce and Mr McCormack in The Australian have reopened the party’s barely healed wounds just in time for parliament’s first sitting week.

David Littleproud is facing a crisis of confidence from his backbenchers as parliament resumes. Picture: NewsWire / Gary Ramage

According to The Australian, Mr McCormack said Mr Littleproud was “the leader, and I’m ambitious for him” – a line that was infamously deployed by Scott Morrison barely 24 hours before he usurped Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister in 2018 and one that Mr McCormack has directed towards his embattled party leader once before.

Senator Ross Cadell was asked whether Mr McCormack and Mr Joyce were “throwing a bucket” on Mr Littleproud’s leadership while speaking from Canberra on Wednesday

“Ah, we’re Nats, we’re a bit fiery, it all happens. I’d prefer it didn’t happen, but that’s the way they want to do it,” he said.

Michael McCormack believes the week-long Coalition split was ‘madness’. Picture: NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“If they want to go out and (say) those things publicly, they can. Internally, we’ve had a party room, it didn’t come up there. I think it was more a public facing thing than an internal problem.”

Despite the apparent chaos, Senator Cadell was still enthusiastic about “going through the process” of figuring out the best path forward for net zero – a commitment that Mr Joyce and Mr McCormack both wish to abandon.

Barnaby Joyce said ‘could understand why’ he was booted to the backbench. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“We’re going to take a slower process, get through it … there’s a lot of people out there who want to grab headlines (and) there’s people out there who want to do the work; each to their own,” he told ABC News Breakfast.

“I want to go through the process, I am open to looking at the evidence.”

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said Mr Joyce and Mr McCormack were “good at speaking up for themselves,” and she would “let them do that”.

“Nobody is getting under my skin … all my colleagues are valued. I have friendships across the aisle,” she said.

“We know that between the aisle we can form that strong opposition that holds the government to account, and that’s the most important thing for all of us.”

Originally published as Ex-Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack turn on leader David Littleproud over net zero