Barnaby Joyce has hit back after a defeated Liberal MP claimed the Nationals leader was an even bigger drag on the government’s vote in metro areas than the prime minister, Scott Morrison.
Joyce told Guardian Australia the Liberals should not “wallow in their loss” after the outgoing Liberal MP claimed women in blue-ribbon metro seats were “not for turning” and “deserted” the government because independents successfully linked Liberals to Joyce.
The MP also revealed that after Joyce returned as Nationals leader, the prime minister’s office attempted to persuade him to stay off national and metro media. The move was designed to avoid outings such as Joyce speaking over Tanya Plibersek on Sunrise, which the MP said was a big turnoff for metro constituents.
The comments heap further pressure on Joyce ahead of a Monday party room meeting, at which Victorian MP Darren Chester will put up his hand to replace him as Nationals leader.
The intervention echoes sentiments from former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, who has said there were “no campaigns against my name and my reputation in inner-city seats” – a clear reference to warnings from independents and Greens that a vote for Liberal moderates was a “vote for Barnaby Joyce”.
Other defeated Liberals have pointed the finger at Scott Morrison’s unpopularity and the trio of issues on which teal independents campaigned: climate, integrity and women.
But the Liberal MP, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were told internal polling showed Joyce had “even lower” popularity in their electorate than Morrison, who himself registered double-digit negative net approval.
The MP said they approached about 10 women at pre-polling who cited Joyce “shouting at” Plibersek over Labor’s housing policy on Sunrise, and that they remarked “there was no way we were going to vote for you after that performance”.
“A woman said ‘I like you, I have no problem with you but I can’t vote for the Liberals’,” the MP said.
“Another said they didn’t like how Scott Morrison smirks, but the greater one by far was the reaction to Barnaby Joyce.”
The MP said voters recalled that Joyce had not voted for same-sex marriage (he abstained) and that past comments about the sanctity of marriage were contradicted by his extra-marital relationship with Vikki Campion, with whom he now has two sons.
“Climate 200’s major attack line was a vote for me is a vote for Barnaby Joyce, or I vote the same way as Joyce in parliament,” the MP said.
“Clearly women deserted us because of the behaviour of the leadership. Women were not for turning. Nobody thinks I, or any of the other Liberals, or Josh Frydenberg, is a misogynist, but it just didn’t matter.”
The MP claimed that “when Barnaby Joyce became leader, he was asked to please stay out of metro media”. “It lasted about 10 days – he kept doing Today, Sunrise, and ABC24.”
The MP cited the Nationals’ Colin Boyce describing net zero as “flexible” on Radio National Breakfast and senator Matt Canavan’s pro-coal messages on ABC TV appearance as “unhelpful”.
“Imagine if I’d done ABC far north Queensland and said net zero helps us transition out of coal,” the MP said.
Asked about the prospect Joyce could be replaced as Nationals leader, the MP replied: “The problem is he’ll still be there as a backbencher, reminding the women of Australia the sorts of people we put into parliament.”
The outgoing Liberal MP was more upbeat about the party’s prospects under Peter Dutton, who they described as a “practical Liberal, a live-and-let-live Liberal” rather than a “conservative”.
“Dutton is under no delusions that we can somehow ignore the Climate 200 seats [won by teal independents].
“He asked me if we need to up the target from net zero and I said it would be good, but it’s not the issue. People don’t feel we’re sincere about climate change.
“Dutton should say to the joint Coalition party room: if you can’t sign up to that [net zero], you can’t be a member of the party room.”
The Liberal MP argued the party had an opportunity to outflank Labor from the left on climate, arguing that a 43% reduction by 2030 is not enough.
“We should say, ‘you promised us ambitious climate action – this is it?’ By 2025 we’ll be close to on track for a 50% reduction by 2030.”
Joyce told Guardian Australia the Nationals “are not the Liberals’ excuse and they must look at their own ship and own it”. He argued that voters in the city were “not so stupid” to think they were voting against Joyce and the Nationals in seats they weren’t on the ballot.
Joyce did not dispute the account he was ordered off metro stations, but said it was “unlikely the leader of one party would take instruction from the staffer of a different party”.
“I’m the leader of a different party that stands in different seats. I respect the leader of the Liberal party, but they are not leader of the National party. It’s a business partnership, not a marriage.”
Joyce disputed claims he was unpopular, citing the fact the Liberal party asked him to campaign in Leichhardt, Herbert, Longman, Blair, Solomon, Eden-Monaro and Paterson – a clutch of Coalition and Labor-held seats, none of which changed hands.
“The Nationals held every seat [16] when the Liberals lost 19” and was “within striking distance” in two more, Lingiari and Hunter, he said.
“An internecine brawl in the New South Wales Liberal party that went nearly all the way to the call of the election and the strong following of [Western Australian] premier [Mark] McGowan probably were issues, and just the plain fact that people after a while want change.”
The NSW Liberal party failed to select candidates in a handful of seats until the last minute, which moderates blamed on Morrison ally Alex Hawke’s refusal to attend candidate-vetting meetings, triggering a takeover of the preselection process.
Morrison and a three-person committee selected the candidates just days out from calling the election, prompting a Liberal member to challenge all the way to the high court, which declined to hear the case.
Labor picked up four Liberal held seats in Western Australia (Swan, Pearce, Hasluck and Tangney), defeating two ministers (Ken Wyatt and Ben Morton) with swings of more than 11%.
