Barnaby Joyce is favourite to be chosen as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister by the end of Thursday, after a dramatic escalation of current leader Warren Truss’ exit timetable.
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Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb will quit politics at this year’s election, adding to a growing list of Cabinet members that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must replace.
Nationals MP Michael McCormack has publicly confirmed he is planning to contest the Nationals leadership against frontrunner Barnaby Joyce, with Darren Chester confirming he will run for deputy. “You want a leader who’s got courage to strike out and go into a new direction”, Senator Canavan told the ABC.
Mr Robb denied that the departures were causing instability.
Mr Turnbull also pointed to his work securing the Trans Pacific Partnership, a historic trade agreement between 11 countries including the United States and China.
Truss – who will remain in parliament until the election – told the House of Representatives that when he became leader after the 2007 election defeat “nobody wanted the job, including me”.
He said Mr Turnbull had asked him to stay on as trade minister for the time being.
Nationals MPs will meet on Thursday evening to select a new leader and deputy.
He already has to fill two ministerial seats in the wake of scandals claiming the scalps of Jamie Briggs and Mal Brough, with a cloud over another minister, Stuart Robert.
Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb announced on Wednesday that he would retire from federal politics following the next election, saying he believes “the time is right”.
AFTER nearly 26 years in federal parliament and a lifetime of involvement in agri-politics, Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss is expected to call time on his parliamentary career on Thursday.
Aside from Robb, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott was dethroned in September a year ago, while right-hand man and Treasurer Joe Hockey was also dumped in the reshuffle initiated by Turnbull when he took over.
New ministerial arrangements would be announced in due course, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a separate statement.
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Robb has also been a campaigner for depression awareness after disclosing in 2009 that he had suffered from the mental illness since adolescence.
