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Barnaby Joyce Was Remade Leader Of The Nationals, Mere Hours After Saying No Spill Would Happen

Another day, another leadership spill...

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Barnaby Joyce has reclaimed his title of Deputy Prime Minister after another leadership spill in Canberra today.

The infamous National Party MP made his bid against Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack after his colleagues lost faith he’d be able to carry them through the next election.

It’s also believed to relate to a lack of pushback from the Nationals on Scott Morrison’s commitment to net zero by 2050, despite McCormack slamming climate change solutions only last week.

The spill was moved by Senator Matt Canavan and was wrapped up by 11.30am. Earlier that morning, Joyce had said there was “no prospect of a spill“.

McCormack had held leadership over the Nationals party for the last three years. “It’s called democracy,” he said to the press directly after he was thrown out.

This is the second time Joyce has held the position, after resigning in 2018 after a scandalous relationship with staffer Vikki Campion, and an alleged sexual harassment complaint. Amid the rumours of a spill overnight, Coalition MP Michelle Landry told NewsCorp that Joyce’s return to power wouldn’t fare well with female voters.

“I think that if he became leader again there would be women out there that would be unhappy with that,’’ she said.

Joyce also made an earlier, unsuccessful bid to push McCormack out in February this year. All this is happening as Prime Minister Scott Morrison is still in the UK after the G7 summit, dealing with an emergency virtual Cabinet meeting to address Australia’s failing vaccine rollout.