Nationals Leader Michael McCormack has dismissed speculation of a challenge to his leadership after Barnaby Joyce declared he would run if there was a spill.
Nationals MPs will meet in Canberra on Tuesday to vote for a new deputy leader after Bridget McKenzie was forced to a resign over the sports rorts scandal.
Mr McCormack was adamant that her position was the only one up for grabs, despite Mr Joyce airing his leadership ambitions on Monday morning.
“There is no vacancy for the leadership of the National Party,” Mr McCormack told reporters in Canberra.
“We have a vacancy for the deputy of the National Party – we will make a meeting and decide this decision then.”
Nationals Leader Michael McCormack at Parliament House in Canberra. Source: Supplied
Mr Joyce would need one of his Nationals colleagues to force a spill of the top job.
“If there is a spill then I will put my hand up,” Mr Joyce told the Seven Network.
“I will leave that up to my colleagues. They can make the call.”
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan told reporters in Canberra he would not be calling for the leadership contest.
“This is all speculation as far as I can see,” he said.
“I haven’t had any conversations with Barnaby about this … I support Michael McCormack as the leader of the Nationals Party."
Nationals MP and cabinet minister David Littleproud is widely considered a frontrunner to fill the deputy vacancy, confirming he is assessing how much support he has from colleagues.
“That’s the gift of the Nationals Party and should always be that way,” he said on Sunday.
“I’ll have those conversations with my colleagues over the next 24 hours.”
Nationals backbencher David Gillespie is another contender for the deputy leadership.
David Littleproud is tipped as a front runner for the Nationals deputy leader's vacancy. Source: AAP
“I will be putting my hand up,” he told reporters.
But he said right now a leadership spill for Michael McCormack’s position “isn’t on the radar”.
“Look anything can happen … this is the National Party.”
Senator McKenzie fronted the media on Monday for the first time since resigning as agriculture minister.
Nationals MP David Gillespie. Source: AAP
The former Nationals deputy leader said she took responsibility for all her decisions.
"The breach of ministerial standards was clear. I should have declared those memberships in a more timely fashion," she said.
The auditor-general found the $100 million in sports grants favoured marginal seats before the last election and ignored merit-based recommendations.
While Prime Minister Scott Morrison said an investigation by the head of his department and former chief of staff Philip Gaetjens found no evidence of such bias.
Senator McKenzie, who was sports minister at the time, instead stood down on Sunday for not disclosing her membership to the Wangaratta Target Club, which received a grant under the funding scheme.
She was also a member of another gun association which received grants for their clubs.
Senator McKenzie downplayed speculation of a challenge to Mr McCormack's leadership.
"There is one vacancy tomorrow, it's my deputy leadership position," she said.
"In true National Party fashion, I'm sure there will be a Melbourne Cup field of candidates."
Labor says it will pursue the sports rorts scandal through a Senate inquiry, despite Ms McKenzie's resignation from cabinet.
Bridget McKenzie resigned as agriculture minister over the sports rorts scandal. Source: AAP
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said there are still questions to answer.
"It's very clear that the prime minister's office was involved in this. It's clear that there was rorting. And that was found by the independent auditor-general," he told reporters.
"For the prime minister to just dismiss the independent report of the auditor-general because he has something from his former chief-of-staff, which conveniently lets everyone else off the hook, means that there needs to be a full and proper inquiry into this sorry saga."
But Mr McCormack is standing by the sports grant scheme based on the findings of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, which have not been released publicly.
The Gaetjens report contrasted the one compiled by the Australian National Audit Office, which found the scheme was heavily skewed towards coalition-held and targeted seats.
“You're always going to have sometimes when people look at things, they look at things in a different light," Mr McCormack told reporters in Canberra.
"I believe the PM&C report that was handed down, I believe that there was no bias."
Additional reporting by AAP
