Restoring carefree Sunday afternoons across Australia will be new Nationals leader Matt Canavan\u2019s defining challenge.<\/p>\n
Addressing the party\u2019s faithful at the NSW branch of its central council in Sydney on Saturday, Senator Canavan doubled down on his pitch to supercharge \u201chyper Australia\u201d.<\/p>\n
And the liquid help he\u2019s using to get there.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI like those white Monsters (energy drinks),\u201d he conceded wryly.<\/p>\n \u201cI drink way too many but I am just a bundle of energy because I love my country.\u201d<\/p>\n While he might have seized on the idea of \u201chyper Australia\u201d to define his leadership, Senator Canavan confessed he did not really know what it meant at first.<\/p>\n But after a period of reflection, leaning somewhat curiously on the notion of cult hero love children, he believes he\u2019s found the perfect explanation.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s say David Boon and Elle MacPherson have a baby … that\u2019s hyper Australia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cJust Australia on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Canavan\u2019s first speech to Nationals insiders since taking the leadership a fortnight ago was light on some of the issues he\u2019s previously railed against.<\/p>\n There was very little mention of immigration or any of the culture war topics that are often the domain of right-flank challenger One Nation.<\/p>\n But fuel, energy and the environment were ever-present throughout his address, with the Queensland senator saying Australia under his stewardship would \u201cdrill baby, drill\u201d for oil.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Australian people are running out of patience with a government that is focused on net zero by 2050 as petrol prices soar above $2.50,\u201d Senator Canavan said.<\/p>\n By addressing fuel shocks and rising prices for families, he said he wanted more people to return to his Australian dream: a lazy weekend.<\/p>\n \u201cMost Australian families tomorrow afternoon will not be relaxing watching the footy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey will be worrying about bills, worrying about the mortgage, worrying about whether they can fill up their car.<\/p>\n \u201cI will use every bit of energy I have to restore the carefree Sunday afternoons that Australians used to enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n With the Nationals having a very minor presence in the South Australian election, Senator Canavan is one of the few Canberra politicians without too much of an eye on Saturday\u2019s results.<\/p>\n But he will be hoping his new alliance with Liberal leader Angus Taylor can prove to the electorate that the coalition still has the answers for Australians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Restoring carefree Sunday afternoons across Australia will be new Nationals leader Matt Canavan\u2019s defining challenge. Addressing the party\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,84],"class_list":["post-554510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554510","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=554510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}