By increasing their numbers within the government, the Nationals were the surprise success story of the election, with a very locally focused campaign.
Barnaby Joyce was in acute pain on Tuesday when he was in Canberra for the Nationals’ post-election meeting.
Andrew Taylor/AAP
Barnaby Joyce’s talks with Malcolm Turnbull to discuss the new Coalition ministry were up in the air on Tuesday night after he suddenly returned to his Tamworth home to nurse an injured knee.
Malcolm Turnbull speaks to the secretary of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson.
Lukas Coch/AAP
There is much talk, after the close election and the substantial vote for the bit players, that the message voters are sending politicians is that they want them to work together for the national good…
Since he took over as Nationals leader earlier this year Barnaby Joyce has played a tight team game.
David Moir/AAP
Within the Coalition the only cheer is among the Nationals who could actually gain one in their numbers at an election where the government has lost a swag of seats.
Tony Windsor at his Werris Creek property with Mackdog, who’s a hit on social media.
Pat Hutchens/TC
There is one question that Tony Windsor, the high-profile former crossbencher from the Gillard years who is attempting a comeback in New England, is unwilling to answer. That is: in the (admittedly unlikely…
Tony Windsor will position himself as fighting to get a better deal for the New England electorate.
Alan Porrit/AAP
In the wake of a leadership change in the National Party, a question hangs over how Barnaby Joyce will handle the added responsibilities of being deputy prime minister.
Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash worked closely when he was a senator, and he has been a supporter of hers.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
In some circles they call Fiona Nash the “Barnaby whisperer”. It’s said she’s able to calm him down. In electing Nash their new deputy the Nationals have acted wisely.
Warren Truss told parliament that when he became Nationals leader after the 2007 election defeat: ‘nobody wanted the job, including me’.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
A new dynamic is coming to the Turnbull government with Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss finally set to announce on Thursday that he will quit the Nationals leadership, ahead of retiring at the election…
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris during a visit to Pearl Harbour, Hawaii on his way home.
Sahlan Hayes/PMO
Nationals leader Warren Truss as the political tease? Well, yes. A couple of weeks out from the start of the parliamentary year, Malcolm Turnbull – and the Nationals – are waiting on Truss. Truss is widely…
Ian Macfarlane’s lunge at a comeback has gone dreadfully wrong.
Dan Peled/AAP
The executive vote thwarted a plan by Ian Macfarlane and the Nationals to get an extra cabinet spot by boosting the minor party’s numbers within the Coalition.
Stephen Parker and Michelle Grattan take a look what confronts both Malcolm Turbull and Bill Shorten in the coming weeks.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Treasurer Scott Morrison will next week deliver a grim mid-year economic and fiscal outlook.
Paul Millar/AAP Image
Having landed the innovation statement on a cloud of optimism, the Turnbull government faces some character-forming days in the coming week.
The furore caused by Ian Macfarlane’s defection to the National Party threatens to take oxygen from Malcolm Turnbull’s innovation statement.
Lukas Coch/AAP
As chance would have it Malcolm Turnbull was to have been at a sod turning for a big Toowoomba bypass project on Monday, in Ian Macfarlane’s Groom electorate.
Misplaced and frayed political loyalties took centre stage again this week as Malcolm Turnbull held dutifully to the under-siege Mal Brough, while being blindsided by the defection of Ian Macfarlane to the Nationals.
Nationals leader Warren Truss has every reason to advance the Nationals’ claim for an extra position in the ministry.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam