00:02Well, quite simply, Joe, he says he's buggered, he's tired, he's done with being the Nationals
00:06leader after four years and he's stepping down to make way for somebody else with some
00:11new ideas and perhaps a fresh perspective for the party.
00:14But this news has come as a big shock to not only us as journalists but his own colleagues,
00:20many of them finding out just moments before he made the announcement today at 3.30pm standing
00:24alongside his wife Amelia. He said he's very proud of his record, he's very happy with
00:30where the coalition currently stands, particularly under Liberal leader Angus Taylor and it's
00:35time for him to step aside. But of course the backdrop to this is that the Nationals,
00:40along with the Liberals, suffered a catastrophic election defeat in May last year. The party
00:45is deeply divided, the coalition under him had two splits, he effectively engineered
00:51the splits between the Nationals and the Liberal Party and of course he had a very, well, famously
00:56bad relationship with the former Liberal leader Susan Lee, who left Parliament or has now left
01:01Parliament to be replaced by Angus Taylor. So the question really is the direction for the
01:07National Party now and how they managed to sort of claw back support that they are really bleeding
01:13to One Nation. One Nation is the kind of big threat at the moment to the National Party and perhaps
01:18the new
01:19leader will have some ideas about how they really fight Pauline Hanson's party. But for his part,
01:24here's what David Littleproud had to say when announcing his resignation as the leader of the Nationals today.
01:31I'm buggered. I'm buggered I'll have enough. To lead this great party would be the wrong thing
01:36for me to do. I love the National Party, I grew up in it. I'll bleed till the day I
01:40die green and gold.
01:42I love it. And it would be wrong for me to say that I'm the right person to continue to
01:47lead.
01:47That's tough for me to say. I think someone better can do it because I don't have the energy.
01:53Any idea he's replacing him?
01:56Well, there's one declared candidate so far and that is Queensland Senator Matt Canavan.
02:00He actually challenged for the leadership last year. David Littleproud had the numbers,
02:04so he won. But this time around, Matt Canavan says he'll give it another go. In a lengthy social
02:09media post, he said that he'll be railing against excessive government spending, in his words.
02:13It's crazy net zero policies. He reckons he'll give the party its best chance to help win the
02:19battle for Australians on the kind of conservative side. Now, colleagues, as I said, are pretty
02:25surprised at this news. So they're still sort of digesting it. But a couple that I've been
02:28speaking to on the national side have put Matt Canavan's name in the mix. He is a senator,
02:33though, which can complicate things. They've also put Michael McCormack's name in the mix,
02:36and that's because he's a former leader who has always been pretty clear about his intentions
02:41to lead the party again. So we'll see in coming days whose names are put forward,
02:47and whether it is a contest for the leadership, or maybe Matt Canavan is given the support of his
02:52party room. But let's take a listen to Victorian Senator Bridget McKenzie, who just half an hour
02:58after this announcement was made was on afternoon briefing with her first take.
03:04It's not easy to lead a political movement, particularly after such a devastating loss
03:11at the last election. And he has put his shoulder to the wheel and done amazing things.
03:16The party will select a new leader. We were without a leader for two weeks back when Barnaby Joyce had
03:23to resign. And as deputy leader, I had to step into that role for a couple of weeks before the
03:30party
03:31room came together to select a new leader. So I'm confident that we'll be leaving Parliament
03:38and Canberra this week with a new leader in place.
03:41And that was Bridget McKenzie, National's senator there, reacting to this surprise news that David
03:47Littleproud is stepping down as the leader of the Nationals and sounding pretty relaxed about the
03:51process from here to elect his replacement.
Comments