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’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.
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…
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.
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…
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.
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.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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