Updated ,first published
New Nationals leader Matt Canavan has warned against getting involved in wars in the Middle East a day after Australia sent forces to the Gulf to fend off Iran’s indiscriminate missile barrage, marking a break the Coalition’s usually steadfast backing of US endeavours in the region.
Canavan, for years viewed as an outsider, entered a Nationals party room meeting neck-and-neck with former deputy leader Kevin Hogan, a moderate. But in a reflection of the party’s willingness to experiment with new leaders and policies to confront a populist threat, Canavan won by a few votes after convincing colleagues he had a detailed plan to draw back support from One Nation.
The Queensland senator outlined an Australia-first agenda on fossil fuel-backed cheap and cultural confidence, delivering one of the sharpest Coalition critiques this term of Pauline Hanson by arguing her brand of race politics damaged the social fabric.
In an interview with this masthead, Canavan said the conflagration in the Middle East proved “we need to become more self-sufficient and take care of ourselves” as a middle power in a fractious world.
“We cannot sit back and expect the US to save the day,” Canavan declared.
“My formative political years were during the war on terror and I felt dudded. I’ve got this inbuilt cynicism now about … foreign entanglements, particularly when they are sold to us without underlying evidence.”
Canavan weighed in on Wednesday when asked about an opinion piece he wrote over the weekend, before taking the leadership and before Labor pledged military support, cautioning on “enter[ing] a war that we do not have a clear plan for getting out of”.
In the interview with this masthead, he emphasised that Labor’s purely defensive deployment to protect Australians in the United Arab Emirates had his support because it was narrowly justified. Yet his scepticism on US interventionism contrasts with the full-throated support Angus Taylor and other Coalition MPs expressed for the US-Israel strikes.
Canavan’s foreign policy stance, and his support for economic intervention and public spending on coal plants, puts him in greater alignment with Andrew Hastie, who recently called the old rules-based order a “fantasy”. Both are Generation X politicians plugged into a right-wing social media ecosystem that is deeply suspicious of US hawkishness.
Joyce turned his guns on the new Nationals leader, who worked as Joyce’s chief of staff.
The Nationals turncoat suggested the Christian-right former economist would cause headaches for Liberal moderates in the cities with whom Canavan disagreed on the Paris Agreement, income splitting and social conservatism.
“How long Matt Canavan gets along with [shadow treasurer] Tim Wilson will be fascinating,” Joyce told reporters. “One side is going to have to compromise: either Matt Canavan or the Coalition. The reason I’m in One Nation is its clear air for me. It’s clarity.”
Wilson told this masthead that Canavan’s purity as a regional conservative allow Liberals to embrace their own city-based identity.
“Matt Canavan is the embodiment of a National, and Nationals should be Nationals, so his elevation gives permission for us to be the Liberals we need to be for urban Australia. Because retaking Australia requires Liberals to be Liberals,” Wilson said.
Darren Chester, a leading moderate in the party, was elected Canavan’s deputy.
Littleproud, the Nationals leader who quit on Tuesday, had not yet visited Farrer, the seat vacated by Sussan Ley, but Canavan moved quickly to talk up the party’s candidate ahead of a May byelection in which One Nation is expected to poll well ahead of the Nationals.
“Pauline has been in politics for more than double the time I’ve been, and I struggle to point to a single dam, single road, single hospital that Pauline has delivered in Australia,” Canavan said.
“I’m very concerned that the identity politics of division that we’ve seen on the left is creeping into the right now. And was very critical of Pauline’s comments dividing Australians into different groups, saying that suggesting there are no good in certain groups of Australians. I totally reject that.”
Hanson immediately fired back by claiming Canavan had joined “the woke pile on” including the ABC, Guardian and others trying to “tear down” One Nation.
“Canavan has found himself in strange company against One Nation, the only party truly dedicated to leading the agenda on ending net zero, cutting immigration and putting Australians first,” she said.
Canavan won leadership in the first round of voting, where three candidates contested, indicating he received at least half of the votes.
Canavan’s pitch to the Nationals partyroom centred on his plan to tackle One Nation. He impressed MPs with typical succinct rhetoric, which he delivered as the loud bells of parliament rang out in the middle of his pitch. He said the Nationals should not put velvet on their gloves as they take the fight up to Pauline Hanson and criticised the party’s divisiveness, particularly on Muslim.
Canavan told the party room that Australia could regain the prosperity that he claims has been declining in recent years, by abandoning the climate goals of the Labor government and expanding the economy, particularly the farming and mining sectors.
He repeated this message to reporters and called for a “hyper-Australian” approach: “We need to have more Australian everything … We need more Australian babies. We need more Australian humour, more Australian jokes. We need more Australian barbecues, sometimes fuelled by fossil fuels. We need more Australian everything.”
“They’re losing their confidence, we’re losing our relaxed and larrikin nature, and we have to fight back for Australians.”
Nationals MP Michelle Landry said on Wednesday she had not yet decided if she would recontest the seat of Capricornia. Canavan has for years considered contesting the north Queensland seat to move to the lower house, where party leaders typically sit.
Unlike other leadership contenders he spoke without notes, sources in the room said.
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Paul Sakkal is chief political correspondent. He previously covered Victorian politics and has won Walkley and Quill awards. Reach him securely on Signal @paulsakkal.14Connect via X or email.
Mike Foley is the climate and energy correspondent for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.