Joyce accuses Littleproud of throwing in the towel: ‘No general!’

One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce has accused Nationals leader David Littleproud of throwing in the towel for a key byelection, after Littleproud downplayed expectations and claimed Joyce deserted the Nationals because he knew he could never lead the party again.

Littleproud told this masthead’s Inside Politics podcast that “it’d be very hard for us to poll ahead of any of” One Nation, the Liberal Party or the Climate 200-backed independent candidate in the regional NSW seat of Farrer vacated by Sussan Ley.

Littleproud and Angus Taylor’s staff have started to hold talks about how to cling onto the seat or minimise a loss, as the Coalition faces its first electoral test this term with its polling at record lows.

Littleproud’s internal enemies, who include a growing number of his own frontbenchers, are watching to see if he campaigns in Farrer and performs well, with a leadership change later this year being contemplated by MPs.

Joyce, who blames Littleproud’s hostility towards him for his defection to One Nation, told this masthead that Littleproud’s remarks about Farrer were remarkable.

“No general on the battleground stands before their troops and says ‘We will probably lose!’,” Joyce said.

The Nationals held the seat for 17 years before 2001, when Ley won the seat after the retirement of former Nationals leader Tim Fischer. Before Fischer, the seat had always been held by Liberals. In 2001, when Ley won, the Nationals polled 23 per cent of the primary vote, but the party has not contested the seat since.

“We’ve got strong membership there that want to run, and we’ll have a candidate. I think we’ll have a role to play as a coalition candidate to try … and garner some of that One Nation vote back to our side,” Littleproud said.

“[Angus Taylor] and I have been very explicit about this, that we’ll work together to make sure that we get one of our candidates up, but it’s going to be difficult.”

In the podcast interview, Littleproud warned against voting for One Nation, telling Farrer voters that a Coalition candidate would have real power “rather than just being a professional complaints desk outside yelling and screaming”.

The member for Maranoa, who was blamed for splitting the Coalition earlier this year and dropped Joyce from his frontbench last May, said Joyce still had a role to play in the Nationals before he decided to leave.

“If you’re in this Parliament, you have a very big role,” Littleproud said. “You have to make calls on your frontbench. And he made calls. He got rid of [former leader] Michael McCormack. Michael McCormack didn’t put him in his front bench. I gave them both the job, but in this term of [this term of] parliament, I made it clear … we had to actually continue to evolve as a party and give people a go.

“I think he rationalised in his head that the party room would never vote for him again to be leader [and] he decided to leave, and that’s a decision for him. It’s disappointing.”

Taylor echoed Littleproud’s pessimism about the Coalition’s chances in Farrer. Both the Liberals and Nationals are running in the seat because, under the Coalition agreement, the parties may run against each other if a Coalition member retires.

“It’s going to be challenging, there’s no doubt about that,” Taylor told radio station 3AW.

“We’ve had a local member leave of course and she had a strong following. And we’re going to have a cast of many candidates it seems. We’ve got some good candidates who are putting their hand up, which is great. But we know it’s going to be a tough fight.”

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