Federal Nationals downplay talk of split

(AAP) Federal Nationals leader Warren Truss has swatted away questions about maverick Queensland senator Barnaby Joyce's leadership ambitions, saying he does not feel threatened.

And Mr Truss also talked down the possibility of a coalition split, saying the
Nationals' partnership with the Liberals was working well, despite the party's
failure to hold onto former leader Mark Vaile's seat of Lyne, in NSW, in a weekend
by-election.
"We've just negotiated a coalition agreement with the Liberal Party following the
last federal election," Mr Truss told Sky News.
"It's working well and we have no desire to change it.
"I think what people want is stable government. They like the idea of a combination
of the Liberal and National parties providing that stability, and at the federal
level that's served our nation well for many decades."
Senator Joyce said he would be prepared to take on his party's leadership if his
colleagues wanted him to.
"I'm not staying up late at night worrying about it and I don't intend to ever go
and ring up Warren and say: 'Warren, I want your job', because I don't," Senator
Joyce told Sky News.
"But if people were ever to put you in that position that would be an incredible
honour and I would take the ball and run with it as hard as I possibly could."
Mr Truss said the leadership was a matter for the parliamentary party.
"Ultimately, this is a matter in the hands of my colleagues but I'm confident that I
have their support," he said.
"I don't feel threatened."
Senator Joyce backed Mr Truss' comments about the future of the coalition.
"If you make the issue big enough, of course people will leave and go their own
separate ways. But I can't see any issue on the agenda that is that big that it
would tear the coalition apart.
"There are things that there will be big arguments about, but nothing that big that
it would tear us apart.
"If an issue came up where someone said we're going to sell regional Queensland to
the Zimbabweans, then I suppose we're out."