will have to win a three-way fight to hold on to the Nationals’ leadership on Monday, facing a push for generational change and a policy reset in the junior Coalition partner.looks set to be elected unopposed to lead the Liberal Party into three years of opposition, Mr Joyce will face off with current deputy David Littleproud and outspoken former minister Darren Chester in a tense party room ballot.
Insiders stressed Nationals ballots are difficult to predict because only 12 votes are needed to secure the leadership. If no candidate secures an outright majority on the first ballot, the person with the fewest votes would be excluded before a second vote.Mr Littleproud confirmed at the weekend he had thanked Mr Joyce for his service to the party but told him he would nominate to take over as leader on Monday morning.
Mr Chester has publicly played down his prospects in the vote. He was twice sacked from cabinet by Mr Joyce and has supported former leader Michael McCormack.One Nationals member said Mr Joyce deserved to keep the leadership, because the party had held all its seats on May 21, noting none had been lost since 2016. In the same period, the Liberals have lost more than 30 seats.
The Coalition frontbench will be dramatically different after former treasurer Josh Frydenberg was defeated, former health minister Greg Hunt retired and former foreign minister Marise Payne moves to the backbench. Labor appears on track to win 76 seats in the lower house, an outright majority. The party’s factions will hold closed-door talks on Monday ahead of caucus settling the final frontbench make-up on Tuesday. The full cabinet will be sworn in on Wednesday.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Mr Dutton should work with the new government on policies for which it won a mandate.
“I’ve always been respectful of people in the Parliament. One of the reasons why we were able to form government in 2010, in that hung parliament, is because the crossbenchers knew that they’d been treated with respect by us.Last week Mr Albanese toldhe would not be doing deals with the Greens, seeking to marginalise the minor party.“I get the sense out there that [Australians] want us to succeed.