The Queensland Nationals MP Ken O’Dowd says a delegation of colleagues will visit the besieged party leader Barnaby Joyce on Wednesday, although he doesn’t know who will be in it. But a fellow Queenslander, David Littleproud, has dared the deputy prime minister’s critics to put up or shut up.



With Joyce now fighting for the party leadership and sandbagging against an internal insurgency, O’Dowd declared on Wednesday morning: “Someone needs to tell [the deputy prime minister] where the party stands.”

Barnaby Joyce's political future under a cloud – politics live Read more

At the same time, Littleproud, who Joyce elevated to cabinet in last year’s reshuffle, took to the airwaves to dig in behind his leader. Littleproud told the ABC Joyce commanded majority support in the Nationals party room, and said both the media and Joyce’s internal critics needed to “put up or shut up” rather than constantly invade his privacy and the privacy of his family.

Michelle Landry, the member for Capricornia, also backed Joyce. She said he had delivered for regional Australia, there was no evidence of wrongdoing in relation to staff appointments, and “we need to give him a fair go”.

With political and media pressure ratcheting up over the course of the parliamentary week, Joyce went into full-scale damage control on Tuesday.

The deputy prime minister apologised to colleagues at the regular Coalition party-room meeting, and made a public statement of regret to his estranged wife, Natalie, his four daughters, to his former staffer and now pregnant partner, Vikki Campion, and to voters in New England.

Over the course of Tuesday, between four and five Nationals MPs were understood to be organising a delegation to tap Joyce on the shoulder but the insurgency ran out of steam that evening.

Joyce is understood to be appealing to colleagues for time and there is no sign as yet that he might stand aside to resolve the crisis.

Nationals believe the frontrunner to replace Joyce would be Michael McCormack, although lacks a public profile. Notably, the party’s deputy leader, Bridget McKenzie, has made no public defence of Joyce since news broke of his personal travails.

Liberals are furious about the rolling distraction, and have moved to distance themselves from Joyce and his decision making, but are ultimately powerless to intervene.

The clock is ticking on a resolution, with Malcolm Turnbull due to leave the country next week, which would make Joyce the acting prime minister – a development some hardheads regard as politically untenable.

The deputy Liberal leader and foreign minister, Julie Bishop, signalled on Wednesday morning she would be available to act in that role should “circumstances change”.

“I do have plans to be overseas next week; parliament is not sitting,” Bishop told the ABC from Kuwait, where she is attending a conference about rebuilding Iraq. “If circumstances change then of course I would change my plans, but that’s not my understanding.”

Barnaby Joyce controversy needs swift resolution, Warren Truss says Read more

With some colleagues intent on destabilisation in an effort to force a resolution, Littleproud attempted to shore up Joyce’s position. “If anyone believes that Barnaby Joyce has broken the law then they should either charge him or leave him alone,” he told the ABC.

Asked whether Joyce continued to enjoy the support of a majority of the Nationals party room, Littleproud said: “Yes, of course he does.”

Party elders have also called for a swift resolution to the controversy. The former Nationals leader Warren Truss said parliamentary colleagues needed to resolve the issue “constructively and quickly”. He said the deputy prime minister had been “diminished” by rolling controversy over his private life.

Truss said Joyce had “enormous capabilities” and could remain in his current role. But, pointing to the distractions that blew the government off course in 2017, the former party leader said the controversy needed to be resolved rapidly “so that the business of government can proceed”.