Senator Matt Canavan has promised to fight for a country of “more Australian babies”, “more Australian BBQs”, and “more Australian jokes!” after being elected leader of The Nationals today.
And Canavan wasted little time presenting his vision for Australia, telling journalists today that, “Everything we need to make Australia the country it was in the past, is here in this country.”
He said that “all we need to do to revive our great nation” is to have more Australian everything.
Not just babies, but more Australian farmers and more Australian jobs and “more Australian BBQs, sometimes fuelled by fossil fuels.”
Also more jokes! As long as they’re the Australian ones. “More Australian humour!” Canavan said.
Canavan was elected leader and Darren Chester his deputy after defeating Kevin Hogan and Bridget McKenize in the leadership vote this morning.
The vote numbers have not yet been announced, but Nationals whip Michelle Landry said the party faces “a mighty battle coming up ahead” as they have two years to get themselves up in the polls.
So, is Canavan the solution?
Not likely, if the solution is to get more women to vote for the party and vote for the Coalition in general. But the conservative’s elevation could be a solution if the plan is to present a temu-like One Nation party. Canavan did take time during the press conference today to call out Pauline Hanson’s record, saying he couldn’t find a major road that her time in parliament has delivered.
Still, Canavan does have his own record worth recalling.
In 2024, he refused to withdraw a Senate bill requiring medical professionals to provide healthcare to fetuses described as “born alive” following an abortion, at the time defying the then-opposition leader Peter Dutton’s order to drop it.
He was one of a group of (male) conservatives who pushed the Coalition to scrap net-zero support.
He was one of just ten MPs to vote against same-sex marriage following the plebiscite in 2017.
And also in 2017, Canavan famously blamed his mother when he became the third victim in the dual citizenship debacle. At the time, he said that his mother had lodged documents with the Italian consulate in 2006 to become an Italian citizen and had also lodged an application for him (Canavan was 25 in 2006). He claimed to know that his mother had become an Italian citizen, but not that “I myself had become an Italian citizen.” He claimed he had no correspondence with Italian authorities over the application
Canavan’s consistent obsession with women’s bodily autonomy particularly represents far more than mere footnotes to his record. It signals that the Nationals want to push further to the right, and suggests what Canavan will potentially prioritise in a future Coalition government.
But in the meantime, more babies and more BBQs! Let’s “make Australia… the country it was in the past.”