Heat on Barnaby Joyce: Darren Chester urged to challenge

Gippsland Nationals MP Darren Chester is primed to challenge Barnaby Joyce for the leadership, after a slump in the party’s primary vote.

A leadership battle is heating up within the National Party, as Gippsland MP Darren Chester is urged to throw his hat in the ring in a bid to revive the party after its primary vote slipped in many key electorates.

“I’ve been asked to run by some of my supporters,” Mr Chester said. “I said I would consider it.”

On election night Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said the party was faring better than expected.

But Mr Chester said anyone looking “at the results on Saturday and being triumphant about it is missing the point”.

He said there was a real transition going on in seats such as Flynn and Dawson in Queensland, plus the Victorian seat of Nicholls.

“The challenge for the Nationals in our party room going forward is to paint a picture that’s more attractive to young and women voters,” Mr Chester said.

Darren Chester has been urged to challenge Barnaby Joyce for party leadership.

The Gippsland MP was one of the few Nationals who recorded a positive swing towards him, of 1.32 per cent on primary votes and 4.49 per cent on two-candidate preferred basis.

Other National Party heavyweights did not fare so well, with Mr Joyce’s primary vote down 2 per cent.

In the Riverina former party leader Michael McCormack primary vote was down a whopping 2.62 per cent, while former Agriculture Minister David Littleproud, in one of the Nationals safest seats suffered a swing against him 1.55 per cent.

Other NSW Nationals MPs were also hit hard, with Member of Cowper Pat Conaghan’s primary vote slashed by 6.54 per cent and his colleague in the seat of Lyne, David Gillespe’s primary vote falling 4.77 per cent.

Mr Chester said there was an “ominous shift in primary votes”, which the party had to heed.