Ex-Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack turn on leader David Littleproud
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.
Mr Littleproud demanded the Libs 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 Libs 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.
Mr McCormack and Mr Joyce directed most of their frustration towards Mr Littleproud over his choice to relegate them to the backbench – a move they feel gives them less sway in conversations around energy policy.
The member for New England said it was not uncommon for him to 'lose his sh*t' over wind farm developments, and Mr McCormack believes renewables companies are '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.
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.
'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.
'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.'
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