You don't know your electorate, Nats tell Gee after Voice defeat

Nationals leader David Littleproud also says Mr Gee doesn't understand and is not in touch with his electorate after more than 70 per cent of voters in Calare chose not to support the Voice.

The criticism continues almost a year of ill-feeling between the Nationals and Mr Gee since his shock decision late in 2022 to leave the party due, in part, to what he said was his muzzling over his support for the Voice.

The Nationals, though, have been insistent that Mr Gee was told he was able to have a different view to the party room.

Mr Gee has since been highly critical of his former party's slow response to natural disasters in the Calare electorate, including March's fire at Hill End, and only recently said any belief that opposing the Voice was a way to political victory for the conservatives was a "bankrupt hope".

Mr Littleproud was asked by a journalist about Mr Gee - and specifically whether he would be welcomed back in the party room - at a press conference at Parliament House on Monday, October 16.

"There's no place for Andrew Gee, not in our party," the Nationals leader said in response.

"Once you leave the family, the family leaves you and the people of Calare have already left him.

"When he decided on this, and I respected, and in fact, I made it very clear to him that we respected that he had a different position, and we actually celebrate that in The Nationals.

"We're the only party that actually celebrates that diversity, where you can have a differing opinion.

"And he made this about the Voice when he knew he had every opportunity to still be different to the rest of the party room.

"And there was no issue about staying in the party room.

"So Andrew Gee has no right to come back. And it shows that he's not in touch with his electorate. He doesn't understand his electorate.

"And I don't want someone in my party room that I can't trust."

In anticipation of a referendum defeat, Nationals Senator Ross Cadell put out a press release last Friday afternoon calling on Mr Gee to resign as an MP if his Calare electorate did not vote for the Voice.

Mr Gee said in response that Mr Cadell's press release showed the "nasty National Party machine all over, always trying to control what people say, think and do".

"They hate it when anyone dares to think for themselves instead of towing their precious party line. People have had a gutful of machine politicians," he said.

"I made my position supporting the Voice public before the last election and I stand by it.

"It was disappointing that they held a party meeting to decide their position on it when I was at a funeral in Eugowra, and then subsequently tried to muzzle me from speaking out.

"The fact that the party has lined up an out-of-town senator to send out a nasty press release like this just shows how very worried they are about winning the seat back.

"It's a shame they put more effort into writing vicious press releases than they do actually working on issues like providing proper disaster assistance for our region.

"This is a great example of a major party engaging in petty, personal point scoring when they should be providing vision and leadership.

"It's little wonder that more and more people, including branch members, are ditching political parties and the puppeteers who run them."

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