A row between two Queensland Nationals led to the Capricornia MP Michelle Landry making an “informal” complaint about bullying, in a sign of ongoing tensions within the Coalition junior party.
The party says the issue has since been “dealt with internally”.
Following a heated partyroom meeting in Canberra in the last sitting week of October, Landry and the Wide Bay MP Llew O’Brien clashed in a fiery exchange in the corridors of Parliament House after they left the chamber of the House of Representatives.
The row erupted after Landry, the assistant minister for children and families, took aim at O’Brien about partyroom leaks.
In the partyroom meeting, O’Brien had accused McKenzie of allowing One Nation to take credit for the government bringing forward the dairy code of conduct, and said it had been his intention to call a spill against her.
Following the corridor argument, Landry is understood to have made an informal complaint to the party’s executive and other party members, but did not escalate the complaint formally, which would have triggered an investigation.
The Nationals president, Larry Anthony, told Guardian Australia that the matter had been dealt with internally, and was now “in the past”.
“I was aware a few weeks ago that there was a robust discussion between a lot of members, and a lot of that was over the dairy code and issues there,” Anthony told Guardian Australia.
“I am also aware that this issue [of Landry and O’Brien] was dealt with internally by the LNP, as they are both LNP members. These issues are dealt with internally by the party, and it is now done, it is in the past.
“I don’t mind robust discussions amongst our members but we all have to get on with each other, and I always want there to be harmony, and that issue is behind us now.”
The LNP president, David Hutchinson, said the party “became aware of a disagreement between two MPs”.
“We have spoken with both of them, and consider the matter closed.”
O’Brien told Guardian Australia that “a short, robust discussion was had about the state of the partyroom”.
“I have always had a good relationship with Michelle and the parliament is the place for robust discussions.”
Landry declined to comment.
The row comes amid simmering tensions within the Nationals about the leadership of Michael McCormack, and the government’s handling of the threat of One Nation in the bush.
Anger erupted within the party after Pauline Hanson claimed to radio host Alan Jones that she had secured the mandatory code of conduct for the dairy industry, with Jones saying she had done a “titanic” job.
There has also been some angst about the government’s drought response, with Nationals MPs anxious that the party is not doing enough in regional areas to address the record dry spell.
The former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce told the ABC last month that the Nationals were “driving the agenda”, but not always getting credit for their work.
“What the Nationals get upset with is, we drive an agenda, we do so much work in a space, then obviously if Pauline Hanson comes out and announces it, it’s not that she developed the policy, it’s not that she drove the agenda – we did. We did.”
In a thinly veiled swipe at McCormack, Joyce said that McCormack was doing the “best job he can” as leader while working within the confines of the government.
