The Nationals deputy leader, Barnaby Joyce, would have preferred Tony Abbott to stand down as prime minister rather than stand against and be toppled by Malcolm Turnbull in this month’s Liberal leadership spill.
On the ABC’s Q&A, Joyce said he didn’t like the changing of party leaders “by the intrigue of the party room”.
“But it’s part of the process and now we work with the process. To be honest, these sorts of occurrences don’t bring out the best in characters, they bring out the worst, because it becomes a world of intrigue … now I want to make sure that we get back to business and work as hard as we can.”
Joyce said he didn’t think it was right to launch leadership coups but that the conventions of Westminster parliamentary democracy allow it.
He said he always felt in the Coalition cabinet “there were two giants in the room”.
“We had Abbott, now we have Turnbull.”
“What would have been better, to be honest, is if Tony had stepped down. It was becoming quite clear that the polls were saying it would be unlikely he would be able to win. I don’t think Tony would have taken us over a cliff.
“I think the proper process would have been Tony stepping down. Malcolm has always been the obvious heir apparent, and that would have been the preferable path.”
Joyce said there would no new breakaway conservative political party formed from within Liberal ranks, previously mooted as being led by the rightwing South Australian senator Cory Bernadi, and last night mocked by host Tony Jones as “Bernardi’s Golden Dawn”, a reference to the ultra-right Greek political party.
While the Coalition has enjoyed a significant boost in the polls with the change of leadership from Abbott to Turnbull, Labor’s shadow health minister, Catherine King, said the government’s policies were unchanged.
