LARRY Anthony has been appointed president of The Nationals, amid party infighting and fears his election will hurt the chances of New England MP Barnaby Joyce in the next federal election.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Anthony was elected unopposed at the party’s federal conference meeting yesterday.
He had been expecting to waltz into the influential job, given he was running unopposed, after the favourite, West Australian Dexter Davies, was forced to withdraw from the race.
But Mr Anthony’s opponents – who believe his mining company ties will damage the party and hurt Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce’s chances at the next election – mounted a last-minute bid to block him.
Mr Joyce is under threat in the New England seat from a resurgent Tony Windsor, the independent who used to occupy the seat.
The man who nominated Mr Anthony for the job, chairman of the NSW Nationals and Tamworth farmer Bede Burke, wrote a letter withdrawing support for him, sending shockwaves through the conference on Saturday.
It briefly appeared as though the move would end Mr Anthony’s tilt, with current president Christine Ferguson agreeing to stay on in the job until a race with multiple candidates could be held. Under the party’s constitution, candidates cannot nominate on the conference floor.
But federal director Scott Mitchell, closely aligned with Nationals leader Warren Truss, intervened to declare Mr Anthony’s candidacy was still valid.
That generated fury among Mr Anthony’s enemies, who argue his role as a lobbyist – particularly for the controversial Shenhua coal mine in Mr Joyce’s New England electorate – should rule him out of contention.
“This is all because Mitchell wants Anthony to get up. He’s quite pro-mining and so is Truss’s office,” one senior party source said on Saturday.
“Surely the optics of getting a president elected ... unopposed whose nomination has been withdrawn by the very person who delivered it are absolutely shocking.”
The minister has publicly said he had no problem with Mr Anthony’s candidacy. However, sources say that privately he has been trying to knock him off.
“Windsor will use this to skewer Barnaby in New England,” one senior source says. “He’ll say Barnaby isn’t actually opposed to this mine – if he was, Larry Anthony wouldn’t be the president of the National Party.”
Mr Anthony said no one could question his commitment to the party.
“The reality is that in the Parliament I have overwhelming support in the Parliament, I have overwhelming support from many other divisions,” Mr Anthony told Fairfax Media.
He says he has come off all the lobbyist registers and insists he has no conflict of interest.
He does, however, admit he is still executive director of lobbying firm SAS Group.
“We do a lot of things aside from government relations – media, communications, stakeholder relations, etcetera. But executive director? Yes, I might have to come off that.”
