From roommates to rivals: how Matt Canavan’s history with Barnaby Joyce could help him defeat One Nation

The Nationals turn to a leader who understands the enemy better than anyone Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast During the 2010 federal election campaign, Matt Canavan and his new boss Barnaby Joyce found themselves booked in a tiny hotel room with a pair of single beds a mere half-a-metre apart. The young political staffer had forgotten to call his wife, Andrea, that night, so decided to text her instead. “Hi babe, love you lots miss you,” the message read. “At least, I thought it went to my wife,” Canavan recounted in his maiden speech to the Senate in 2014. “Instead I had been texting Barnaby so much it went to him by mistake.” Almost inseparable for more than a decade-and-a-half until Joyce’s defection to One Nation in December, Canavan is now charged with combating his one-time political mentor and his new party after being installed as Nationals leader on Wednesday. In selecting the straight-talking, pro-coal, “anti-woke” religious conservative from Queensland as their official flag bearer, the Nationals have decided that if the party is to survive, it must lurch further to the po