Joyce, Canavan must share blame for Liberal wipeout, McCormack says | micksfoley
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack has lashed his successor, Barnaby Joyce, and firebrand senator Matt Canavan over the roles they played in the election campaign and its wash-up, and confirmed he is considering a bid to regain the party’s leadership.
“We can’t just point the finger at the Libs for those losses. We gave people an excuse to park their votes with the teals and they did so in such numbers the Libs lost,” McCormack said in an interview.Under party tradition, the positions of Nationals leader and deputy leader, currently held by Queensland MP David Littleproud, will be opened to a vote. Along with McCormack, Victorian MP Darren Chester has said he is weighing up a tilt, as is another Queensland MP, Keith Pitt.
“The teal candidates used our party leader’s name against the Liberals in their inner-city campaigns,” McCormack said.“We settled where we needed to land [on the net zero policy] then in the midst of a heated campaign Canavan came out and said it was dead.”“Net zero by 2050 is still 28 years away and anyone who thought the Coalition would be in government for all that time ... is in fairyland.”
Joyce said on Monday the Nationals would reconsider their support for net zero and he would not rule out breaking away from the Liberals.McCormack said the Nationals were in a “despairing” position now the Coalition was out of government.
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