Mia Davies says Joyce has become ‘a distraction at both federal and state level’

The Western Australian arm of the National party has announced it no longer has confidence in Barnaby Joyce, claiming he has become “a distraction at both federal and state level”.

The largely symbolic gesture has been brushed off by Joyce, who responded to the Nationals WA leader, Mia Davies, with a statement pointing out her party had no MPs within the federal parliament, and sat separately from the Liberals in WA, with no coalition agreement in place.

“Therefore I find it surprising that a federal issue has so much momentum in the west, when people in the east in the National party have, in the majority, a different view, and, to be quite frank, vastly more skin in the game,” he said.

Davies said the “ongoing damage” to the Nationals brand led her party to abandon the federal leader.

“It is the view of the parliamentary National party of Western Australia that Mr Joyce’s position as federal leader is no longer tenable,” she said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.

No clear challenger to Joyce has emerged within the National party room and his supporters are growing increasingly confident the deputy prime minister will survive the controversy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mia Davies said the ‘ongoing damage’ to the Nationals brand led her party to abandon the federal leader. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Joyce is on personal leave for a week, as the government scrambles to deal with the fallout from his relationship with a former staffer and ongoing questions about whether he abused his public office while his now partner, Vikki Campion, was employed by the government.

But while unease remains within the National party room, no compulsory party meeting has been called as yet for Monday.

In an interview with Fairfax Media, Joyce said he would not be shifted as leader, declaring he had no plans to go anywhere.

Despite the allegations, no proof Joyce misused his office or public funds during the affair has emerged.

Unease continues to linger within the Coalition over Campion’s move to Queensland senator Matt Canavan’s office and later, during the section 44 challenge, to the office of Nationals whip, Damian Drum, which saw his staffing allocation increased, but it’s not seen as enough to shift votes against Joyce.

Canavan said Campion was the only person his office interviewed for the job, which he said was “not unusual” for internal appointments but denied he knew of the affair.

“In terms of Ms Campion’s employment, she was very well qualified for the role we were seeking,” he said. “It was not a new position created. It was a position the National party already had.

“It was re-allocated to my office, which happens all the time in this place. She got the job on her merits and was a good and effective employee, albeit only for a few months for me because I had to resign over citizenship issues and all of my staff lost their jobs.”

Canavan, a close friend of Joyce, is firmly within his supporter camp, and said he did not believe there was a mood within the regions to move Joyce, despite the most recent Newspoll finding two-thirds of voters believed Joyce should quit.

“It’s obviously not 100% in one direction,” he said. “I think the feedback from our members, though, and our supporters on the ground, is that they want to see Barnaby continue there and want to see him fight for regional Australia. There’s a level of disappointment about what’s happened but they don’t want to see a change of direction.

“There’s a level of trepidation about the leadership for regional Australia that would be replaced if Barnaby is no longer leading the National party.”



Q&A Why can't Malcolm Turnbull sack Barnaby Joyce? Show Hide Barnaby Joyce is not a member of Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal party, he is the leader of the National party, which governs in coalition with the Liberals. In the same way that the prime minister could not sack the leader of the Labor party, he has no power to force the Nationals to change their leader. There is a coalition agreement between the leaders about the terms of their political partnership. The agreement is secret, but one of its cornerstones is that the leader of the National party will be deputy prime minister when the Coalition is in government and therefore acting prime minister in the absence of the PM. Turnbull could remove Joyce from the position of deputy prime minister by ending the Coalition between Liberals and Nationals. However, because the two parties combined only have a one-seat majority over Labor in the House of Representatives, that would be risky. Photograph: Michael Masters/Getty Images AsiaPac

With an election due in the next 12 to 18 months, Nationals MPs have turned to the consequences of dumping Joyce as leader, given the low profile of the rest of the party room, in particular Michael McCormack, who is considered the most likely next leader.

Party concerns over maintaining its vote, even in safe seats, to ensure the Nationals keep their influence and cabinet allocation within the Coalition, and maintain or increase Senate numbers, have begun to filter through conversations.

Describing the situation as a “watch and wait” scenario, one Nationals source said the next hurdle for the party was the upcoming estimates hearings.

Labor is expected to use its allocated questions to pursue the finance and agricultural department heads over Joyce and Campion’s travel and whether any special treatment was afforded the former media adviser in her job changes.

Joyce is scheduled to return to work on Monday, when the House of Representatives will sit, which will also be his first public appearance with the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, since their falling out over the controversy late last week.