Member for Calare Andrew Gee says he has "no regrets whatsoever" about his decision late last year to leave the Nationals, insisting that he would never have been able to speak out freely had he stayed with the party.
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And he has disputed new comments made by federal Nationals leader David Littleproud about the events of last December, when Mr Gee announced his intention to become an independent.
While Mr Littleproud - in an interview with Sky News - said Mr Gee had been free to support the Voice to Parliament even though the federal Nationals were opposing it, the Calare MP is adamant that he was being muzzled last year.
Timeline
- May 2022: Andrew Gee re-elected as Member for Calare for the Nationals.
- November 28, 2022: The federal Nationals announce they will oppose a Voice to Parliament.
- November 29, 2022: Mr Gee says his position on the Voice is unchanged and he remains a supporter of the proposal.
- December 23, 2022: Mr Gee announces he will leave the Nationals and become an independent.
Asked by Sky's Laura Jayes this week whether the Nationals had the flexibility to accommodate a supporter of the Voice like Mr Gee, Mr Littleproud insisted they did.
"Andrew Gee was told it was okay for him to have a divergent view to the party room," Mr Littleproud said.
The federal Nationals leader said there were "deeper issues with the NSW Nationals" that Mr Gee "carried over from his time in state politics", but said "Andrew was made aware, fully aware, that it was okay for him to have a divergent view [on the Voice] because he believed that's what his electorate was pushing forward to him.
"And we made it very clear to him when we got to that position [the party's decision to oppose the Voice] in November," Mr Littleproud said.
"And I hadn't heard anything else or anything of the contrary until two days before Christmas when he said that he was quitting, which wasn't just about the Voice, it was about more divergent views within the NSW Nationals.
"I respect that. But the Nationals intend to come back and to reclaim Calare. I made that very clear to him.
"While I like him at a personal level, this is about making sure that the movement for regional Australia, which is the Nationals, will be back in Calare and will give them that voice in federal parliament after next election."
When he was contacted by ACM, Mr Gee disputed Mr Littleproud's interpretation of the events leading up to the Calare MP's decision to leave the Nationals.
"After the Nationals had put out their position opposing the Voice and after I had put out my statement supporting it, Mr Littleproud spoke to me on the phone and very clearly stated that he didn't want me doing any national media on the Voice - only local media," Mr Gee said.
"If that's not muzzling debate and the freedom to speak your mind, I don't know what is.
"Yet the party was still out there in the national media trumpeting their position on 'no'."
As he did last December, Mr Gee said the National Party is "not the party I grew up with".
"It's run by an ever-shrinking circle of people and has lost touch with its once mighty base and our communities," he said.
"People are sick of machine politicians who just parrot the party line.
"I would never have been able to speak out as freely on issues such as the Voice and the party's failures on disaster relief had I stayed a member.
"I have no regrets whatsoever."
Mr Gee told the Central Western Daily in January he plans to contest the 2025 federal election as an independent and said plenty of people had come up to him and "our booth workers at the last election" to say "they were voting for me despite the party I belonged to".
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