Mark Coulton says National Party leadership and Barnaby Joyce speculation is “gossip”

Mr Coulton said Nationals MPs are not counting numbers to replace the Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, who is accused of not connecting with rural voters and being easily bullied by the Liberals.

“I think this leadership spill talk is Canberra gossip,” Mr Coulton said.

“The National Party room has 21 people in it and has all these people who are supposedly dissatisfied with Michael’s leadership, well I don’t know who they are.

“They are not talking to me and Barnaby has not approached me or any of my colleagues looking for support.”

Mr Coulton said “outside commentators” pushing an agenda were responsible for the leadership spill talk and not National Party parliamentarians.

“Quite frankly we have city radio shock jocks feeding into this and one thing the National Party won’t do is take direction from Alan Jones,” he said.

“Most of the criticism of Michael has come from the shock jock fraternity and not our party room.”

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Mr Coulton said he was “incredibly annoyed and frustrated that this speculation is out in the public domain.”

“Michael’s style is different to Barnaby’s, he was very up and out and he was a large presence but Michael is more reserved but he certainly is just as dedicated, just as smart and just as devoted to the job,” he said.

“We’ve had previous leaders such as John Anderson and Warren Truss who have been great leaders of this country and Michael is a leader more in their style.

“We’ve just passed the Trans-Pacific Partnership 11 through the Senate which is one of the biggest trade deals we’ve ever done, but all anyone wants to talk about is this.”

Mr Joyce claims he is not going to challenge for the National Party leadership but was ready to do the job if his colleagues asked him to.