Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce has rejected Malcolm Turnbull's latest offer of a frontbench position — made a day after the maverick National led a revolt against the Opposition's stance on the Government's infrastructure legislation.
The Opposition Leader made the offer when the two met on Saturday in Sydney to discuss the Nationals' defiant stance.
Mr Turnbull said yesterday it would be "desirable" if Senator Joyce was a member of the shadow cabinet, like Liberal Senate leader Nick Minchin and his deputy Eric Abetz.
"Clearly it would be better if Mr Joyce was going to be part of that leadership group. But he has chosen not to be."
If Senator Joyce was on the front bench, he would not be able to cross the floor.
Mr Turnbull, who is under pressure from some Liberals to take a tough line with the Senate Nationals and even review the Coalition agreement, also issued a warning that any deviations from collective Opposition decisions "have to be very few" as "unity is vital in politics".
Early on Friday, four Nationals and two Liberals crossed the floor to unsuccessfully insist that a regional communication fund should not be rolled into the Government's infrastructure funds.
The Opposition had decided to back off on this and other amendments and let the legislation through, because it feared a backlash.
Senator Joyce told Channel Nine that he would not go onto the front bench because the role of the Senate was "to review and amend legislation".
The row between the Coalition partners widened yesterday, with Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald attacking Senator Joyce and Nationals federal president John Tanner defending the action of the senators who crossed the floor.
Senator Macdonald said the Opposition could win the next election if it could demonstrate better financial management skills and focus on unity in the Coalition.
It was doing the first but the approach of Senator Joyce was "not helpful" with the second element.
Senator Macdonald said he was "at a loss" to understand what the Senate Nationals were doing and described the situation as "bizarre".
But Mr Tanner said that Senator Joyce and his Senate colleagues were "standing up for those issues important to the Nationals — particularly the regional communication issue. I don't have a problem with their action last week."
Senator Joyce also left the way open yesterday for a move to the lower house, where he could run for the leadership.
But that aspiration is being thwarted at the moment by the determination of Bruce Scott, 65 — member for Maranoa, the seat in which Senator Joyce lives — to run for another term.
Senator Joyce also insisted that it was "imperative" that the Coalition be retained for conservative politics to be successful.
The Coalition had been "the most successful form of conservative politics in Australia" and people who thought it would be better to break it apart were wrong, he said.
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