David Littleproud elected new Nationals leader with Perin Davey as deputy

David Littleproud has been chosen as the next leader of the Nationals.

Littleproud ousted former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce following a post-election leadership spill in Canberra on Monday morning, with NSW Senator Perin Davey elected deputy.

Three people each had nominated for the leader and deputy positions.

In his first press conference as leader, Littleproud said Australian elections were won from the centre, contrasting his new team with the Joyce’s leadership.

“This is not about the National lurching left or lurching right, it’s using common sense and being in the sensible centre. That’s where you win elections, not chasing extremities.”

Littleproud also acknowledged that while the National party held their seats, albeit with some significant swings against them, there were “evolving threats”. This was in reference to the changing demographics of rural seats and the rise of independents and minor parties.

“There are some real signals there, that we as a party need to understand and continue to be able to get clearer to be able to enunciate that we are a broad church and we understand that our our constituencies are evolving and we need to evolve with them and we are,” Littleproud said.

In a statement, Joyce congratulated the new leadership team and said the decision would allow him to return to his “second greatest love, after my family, and that is my beloved people of New England”.

“I suppose you think I am sad. Not really,” Joyce said.

“I gave every ounce of my energy to make sure that I looked after the people of regional Australia, the people in the small family businesses, the people in the weatherboard and iron, the people on the farms, making sure that we drove the investments to take their standard of living ahead.”

Despite the Nationals retaining all their seats, the former deputy prime minister has been accused of having Liberal blood on his hands after his party’s support of coal turned inner-city voters off sitting moderate Liberals.

Littleproud underlined the Nationals commitment to net zero by 2050 after Matt Canavan’s comments during the campaign declaring net zero was “all over”.

He said signing up to the 2050 target was essential to being part of a global community.

“If we didn’t sign up to that … every Australian Treasury modelling would have shown that markets had already factored in, nearly up to a 3% increase in your mortgages, and your commodity prices would have gone down.”

“So I couldn’t look my people in the eye and say, we can’t be part of a global community. Because if we’re not part of the global community, then we don’t make money.”

However he was critical of Labor’s commitment to a 43% emissions reduction by 2030, a target former North Sydney Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman called on the Coalition to support to win back more progressive city electorates.

“It’s about making sure that those people in regional rural Australia don’t bear the brunt, particularly in agriculture, who have borne the brunt for us to meet Kyoto and meet Paris and had property rights stripped away but weren’t compensated for. That’s not the Australian way,” Littleproud said.

Asked whether he remained committed to the Coalition in opposition, Littleproud said the Liberal and National party would continue with discussions but he pointed out “the National Party can’t win an election by itself”.

Littleproud is a former banker who represents the Queensland seat of Maranoa, the safest seat going into the recent campaign. He said he joined the National party 40 years ago, at the age of 6, handing out National party flyers for his father at the Chinchilla Courthouse.

Maranoa takes in 729,000 square kilometres in southwestern Queensland and is one of only three rural seats (including Kennedy and Groom) who voted against marriage equality.

As agriculture minister, Littleproud set up a pilot programs to allow businesses to pay farmers for protection of biodiversity and carbon, a program he said reflected the National’s commitment to provide incentives for action on climate change.

Davey is a NSW senator, a former water lobbyist with a government relations business and army reservist, who lives near Deniliquin, near the Murray River in southern NSW.

As the Coalition formulates its policy around the final years of the Murray Darling Basin plan, Davey and new Liberal deputy Sussan Ley, whose seat Farrer runs along the Murray, are expected to create greater pressure on water policy in the southern basin.

“We are a diverse team, that the one thing we all are absolutely unanimous on is that the region’s are vital for Australia’s economic security going forward,” Davey said.

“We held all of our seats under Michael McCormack. This year, we held all our seats under Barnaby Joyce, and next time, we will hold all our seats, and some under David Littleproud.