The Nationals are heading off to a leadership spill, because it’s been too long since Australia knifed a leader. They’re fighting over the position of Deputy Prime Minister, which means that next time Scott Morrison leaves for Hawai’i, the person who wins this vote will be put in charge. But who the hell are any of these people?
Here’s a crash course in the lower house members of The Nationals.
Michael McCormack
- The current Deputy Prime Minister, kept his leadership after the Nationals spill
- Federal Member for Riverina
- Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development
- Called people talking about how the recent bushfires were linked to climate change “raving inner-city lunatics” and said that fire victims “don’t need the ravings of some pure, enlightened and woke capital-city greenies.”
David Littleproud
- Federal Member for Maranoa
- Minister for Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management
- Take another look at all the things he’s the Minister for, and then remember that he recently said “I don’t know if climate change is manmade.”
Darren Chester
- Federal Member for Gippsland
- Deputy Leader of the House
- Minister for Veterans and Defence Personnel
- Had to specifically tell the National Press Club that the National Party are “much more than blokes in big hats”.
Mark Coulton
- Federal Member for Parkes
- Assistant Trade and Investment Minister
- Minister for Regional Services, Decentralisation and Local Government
Andrew Gee
- Federal Member for Calare
- Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister
Michelle Landry
- Federal Member for Capricornia
- Assistant Minister for Children and Families
- Has said that “People have celebrated Australia Day on the 26th of January for decades. We have celebrated as a nation and we want to continue to do this.” Immediately followed up by saying that she hadn’t “really spoken to a lot of the aboriginal groups.”
George Christensen
- Federal Member for Dawson
- Once posted a picture of himself pointing a gun and captioned it “You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?”
Pat Conaghan
- Federal Member for Cowper
- Actually supports The Uluru Statement, which I’ll admit I didn’t expect
Damian Drum
- Federal Member for Nicholls
- Chief Nationals Whip
Dr David Gillespie
- Federal Member for Lyne
- Voted to repeal Medevac and make it way harder for offshore refugees to get medical treatment because “The medical situation on these islands is better than many of our regional towns.”
Kevin Hogan
- Federal Member for Page
- Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives
- Calls himself an “Independent National” and sits on the crossbench despite remaining in the Nationals, which is all very confusing.
Barnaby Joyce
- Member for New England
- There is no end to the cooked things Barnaby has done.
Llew O’Brien
- Federal Member for Wide Bay
- Called for this Nationals spill vote to happen in the first place
Ken O’Dowd
- Federal Member for Flynn
- Deputy Nationals Whip
- Suggested he could replace Barnaby Joyce when Barnaby’s whole cheating scandal first came out, but has stayed pretty quiet this time around
Keith Pitt
- Federal Member for Hinkler
- Wants Queensland to disconnect from the national electricity grid so that they can keep on being powered by coal and don’t have to deal with states that use renewable sources.
Dr Anne Webster
- Federal Member for Mallee
- Is totally fine with the whole sports rort scandal, even though her electorate was one that missed out on funding because of it.
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