Canavan has a chance to stop the rot and take on One Nation

March 12, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Save this article for later

Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.

Political parties that lose government would do well to consider what needs to be done to recoup lost trust and support. A spot of self-reflection could help too.

But the National Party has proved incapable of this kind of introspection and blithely ploughed on with business as usual. Meanwhile, One Nation has been mustering National voters who have lost the faith as internal disputes and policy differences racked the party.

The populist right-winger Matt Canavan was elected as Nationals leader on Wednesday in an attempt to put all that behind.

Conservative politics in Australia is faced with the twin dilemmas of trying to........

© The Sydney Morning Herald