David Littleproud has retained leadership of the Nationals party seeing off a challenge from Queensland senator Matt Canavan.
Speaking to the media shortly after the announcement Littleproud said he was proud to have led the party for the last three years and to be continuing in the role.
Littleproud said the majority of policies across the coalition including nuclear power, divestiture laws and opposition to the Voice to Parliament has come from The Nationals.
“I’m proud of our achievements over the last three years, the last three years where I think we set the policy agenda. We were the first ones to make a principled position on The Voice. We didn’t do that in a rushed way. We listened to both sides. We got to a policy position and made sure that we set the tone … for the conversation that the Australian people had and that actually turned the result.
“It was the Nationals that led that. We’ve had the courage on nuclear energy, something that our party room has believed in for a very long time … it was us. It was our party room that delivered it.” Littleproud said.
Senator Bridget McKenzie will serve as leader in the senate, while Kevin Hogan will serve as deputy leader.
Senator Cananvan has called for a move away from achieving net zero in emissions, arguing that instead a focus should be on reducing Australians energy bills. The senator also called for action against equality and diversity initiatives.
David Littleproud said the vote today was about leadership and not policies, saying leader’s don’t dictate policies, they’re developed as a team.
