Warren Truss asserts Nationals' demand for more cabinet spots after defection

Extract from The Guardian

Deputy prime minister addresses media in the wake of Ian Macfarlane’s shock move and says National party is ‘under our entitled representation’ in cabinet

Warren Truss: ‘technically, the Nationals are under our entitled representation in the cabinet; that’s been the case since the size of the cabinet was increased – that’s an issue that will need to be addressed.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Daniel Hurst Political correspondent

@danielhurstbne

Monday 7 December 2015 14.54 AEDT

Warren Truss has asserted the National party’s demand for a greater share of cabinet positions as the deputy prime minister pushed back at criticism of his secret talks with Liberal defector Ian Macfarlane.

The leader of the junior Coalition partner addressed the media alongside Macfarlane in Queensland on Monday and stressed the need for Malcolm Turnbull to deal with the cabinet proportion issue “in due course”.

“Well, technically, the Nationals are under our entitled representation in the cabinet; that’s been the case since the size of the cabinet was increased – that’s an issue that will need to be addressed,” Truss said.

Nationals insiders argued Macfarlane’s move from the Liberals would further strengthen their claims for increased representation, given that the Coalition agreement links the number of ministries to the ratio between each party.

Truss also defended not informing the prime minister of the talks that began shortly after Macfarlane was dumped from the cabinet in September, saying it would have been “entirely inappropriate” to betray the MP’s confidence.

“It was a matter for Ian to make a statement when he felt that was appropriate,” he said. “There was no conspiring, there was no [going] behind the backs; the reality was that there were discussions, those discussions came to public attention when Ian chose to bring them to public attention.”

Asked directly whether he had betrayed Turnbull, Truss said: “I reject any suggestion of that nature. Clearly, when there are changes occurring in leadership, when there are changes occurring in the governance of parties, when people move from one party to another, it doesn’t all happen publicly in the open. There are discussions going on for a long time.”

Senior Queensland Liberal ministers stepped up their criticism of the defection, with George Brandis and Peter Dutton warning the proposal was yet to be approved by local branch members and the state executive and therefore not a fait accompli. They said Macfarlane had hidden his plans when he was recently re-endorsed to contest the next election on the basis he would remain a Liberal.

In Queensland, the Liberal and National parties merged into a single Liberal National party (LNP), but divisions between the old parties remain and the defection has opened a new round of public tensions. Queensland seats are designated as either Liberal or National electorates and when in Canberra the LNP’s representatives sit in the corresponding party rooms.

Macfarlane’s defection, revealed last week on the final parliamentary sitting day of the year, is due to be considered by the LNP state executive next Monday. The meeting has been scheduled to follow a decision by branch members in his regional Toowoomba-based electorate of Groom, and the local views are expected to be influential in the ultimate outcome.

Liberals have accused Macfarlane of trying to “game the system” by engineering his return to the frontbench as a National, just two and a half months after he was demoted to the backbench after the Liberal leadership change.

Macfarlane said on Monday the LNP’s status as a single “conservative force” had been “forgotten by a few of my southern colleagues”. He pointed out that if he were re-elected as the MP for Groom at the 2016 election it would be under the LNP’s banner – the same as at the previous election.

His goal was “to represent the people of regional Australia, particularly the people of regional Queensland” and he believed that would be best served by his return to the frontbench.

“When I went into politics in 1998, my goal was to be an effective representative by being in cabinet. That remains my only goal,” Macfarlane said.

Truss and Macfarlane were among federal and state government representatives to attend an event to mark the turning of first sod for the Toowoomba second range crossing – a road bypass project that people in the Queensland regional city have been discussing for decades.

Turnbull withdrew from the long-planned event. Truss said the date had been set by Tony Abbott when he was the prime minister. The new prime minister had “a different program and was not able to accommodate it”, Truss said.

Macfarlane, a former science minister, said he understood why Turnbull had instead decided to attend the launch of a $1bn innovation plan in Canberra on Monday. “It’s part of a program which was begun when I was the minister for science,” he said.

The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, seized on the “deep-seated problems” within the government.

He said Turnbull’s decision to withdraw from the Toowoomba event showed he was “too chicken to show up to see the deputy prime minister”.

“The deputy prime minister has been engaging in private discussions to seduce across a Liberal to become a National party member,” Shorten added. “That’s not exactly deputy prime minister behaviour.”

The MP for Wright, Scott Buchholz, also attended the Toowoomba event and confirmed he would not follow Macfarlane in shifting to the Nationals. “I’ll be staying with the Liberals,” he said.

Buchholz, who sits in the Liberal party room but is a former chief of staff to the deputy leader of the Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, was widely reported to be considering following suit. He was dumped as chief government whip when Turnbull became prime minister.

Buchholz told Sky News he had no “appetite” to shift to the National party room and he would uphold his previous commitment to the Liberals.

The treasurer, Scott Morrison, played down the significance of the upheaval in an interview with 2GB on Monday. The Sydney-based Liberal MP said there was no trigger for a ministerial reshuffle.

“Ian Macfarlane has decided to change from one seat on one side of the bus to the other side of the bus, but we’re all on the same bus and we’re all heading in the same direction and if you vote for Ian Macfarlane at the next election Malcolm Turnbull remains prime minister,” Morrison said.