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Populist right-winger Matt Canavan has been elected leader of the Nationals in a major pivot for the ailing regional party as it seeks to take on a resurgent One Nation.<\/p>\n
Canavan had spent years rebelling against the Coalition\u2019s net zero emissions target and arguing for the use of fossil fuels. He has taken on a more disciplined role since the opposition dumped net zero as a policy position last year, telling colleagues for months he was ready to lead the party.<\/p>\n
The senator, speaking in his first press conference as party leader on Wednesday, marked out battle lines with One Nation, labelling the minor party leader as divisive and ineffective, and arguing the Nationals were a genuine grassroots movement as opposed to the Hanson-dominated party.<\/p>\n
\u201cPauline has been in politics for more than double the time I\u2019ve been, and I struggle to point to a single dam, single road, single hospital that Pauline has delivered in Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Canavan, a trained economist who favours state intervention, said he stood for the role because Australians were losing their standard of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re losing their confidence, we\u2019re losing our relaxed and larrikin nature, and we have to fight back for Australians,\u201d Canavan said.<\/p>\n
![\"Nationals](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8cd252fe35d5289fb766ce1382b303fab7824c31.jpeg\")
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan arriving at the party room meeting.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have more Australian everything\u2026 We need more Australian babies. We need more Australian humour, more Australian jokes. We need more Australian barbecues, sometimes often fuelled by fossil fuels. We need more Australian everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canavan won the party room vote, after convincing his colleagues that his straight-talking, Christian-right brand of politics was fit to take on One Nation, which is eroding the regional party\u2019s support in the regions by portraying the Coalition as meek and out of touch on migration and energy.<\/p>\n
He also persuaded enough of his colleagues he could overcome the hurdle of leading a major party from the Senate.<\/p>\n
Former deputy leader Kevin Hogan was viewed as the safer pick and won support from most of Littleproud\u2019s more moderate support base, who have long viewed Canavan as too far outside the political mainstream to lead the party.<\/p>\n
Related Article Canavan, a father of five from Queensland, has shown colleagues in recent months that he has the fight and the skills to joust with Hanson, criticising her for her remarks about Muslims<\/a>, dismissing her party as impotent and driven by protest, and questioning Joyce\u2019s character when he defected<\/a> from the Nationals.<\/p>\n The new leader, 45, laid out a forthright attack on One Nation in his first press conference, saying the new populist force was driven by the same identity politics driving far-left actors.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very concerned that the identity politics of division that we\u2019ve seen on the left is creeping into the right now. And was very critical of Pauline\u2019s comments dividing Australians to different groups, saying that suggesting there are no good in certain groups of Australians. I totally reject that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Victorian MP Darren Chester was elected as Canavan\u2019s deputy. Chester, the member for Gippland, is one of the most moderate MPs in the National Party and will help alleviate worries from Liberals that Canavan is too right-wing.<\/p>\n Canavan previously served as Joyce\u2019s chief of staff and the pair have been close allies for years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe apprentice has become the master,\u201d former leader Michael McCormack said when asked on Sky about Joyce\u2019s claim he\u2019d taught Canavan everything.<\/p>\n Previewing One Nation\u2019s future arguments against Canavan, Joyce told reporters that the Canavan agreed with the One Nation position on income splitting in families, pulling out of the Paris Agreement and other contentious issues that would force Canavan to compromise.<\/p>\n \u201cOne side is going to have to compromise, either Matt Canavan or the Coalition,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason I\u2019m in One Nation is its clear air for me. It\u2019s clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n The vote, which the Nationals do not disclose, was expected to be tight heading into the meeting.<\/p>\n David Littleproud had stunned nearly all his colleagues when he quit after Question Time<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Only Kevin Hogan, Littleproud\u2019s loyal deputy, was told of the leader\u2019s decision early on Tuesday.<\/p>\n One MP said the decision to tell Hogan early and hold a ballot the morning after Littleproud\u2019s call appeared designed to give Hogan the best chance of winning.<\/p>\n Canavan has been planning for years to eventually run for the lower house seat of Capricornia, should Michelle Landry retire. Landry said on Wednesday she would make her mind up closer to the election.<\/p>\n Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Nationals](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a4841d635028c4a192ae8f74035441f2dcc03780.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/13ac7ac06962308b4316beb706366a4f663b6e20.jpeg\")
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House in Canberra.Dominic Lorrimer<\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767789310_197_119281a2607761852c4e3d0bae521b8cb3f98cb4.png\")
Paul Sakkal<\/a> is chief political correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and has won Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.![\"Brittany](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/af71def990bb09f8d3ae9269dff8c75c2d45963c.png\")
Brittany Busch<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.![\"Mike](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768102829_963_7f47b503728da7e265c0917951384bea10b25583.png\")
Mike Foley<\/a> is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 11, 2026 \u2014 12:47pm,first published March 11, 2026 \u2014 8:55am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-532413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}