Barnaby Joyce fronts party room over text scandal but avoids a spill

Mr Joyce has been under intense scrutiny since text messages he sent as a backbencher last year were leaked, in which he called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a "hypocrite and a liar".

Several Nationals were privately furious Mr Joyce had found himself in the centre of a scandal so close to an election. Nationals MPs were also confused why Mr Joyce had offered his resignation to Mr Morrison, who declined it.

"I'm not quite sure how that works, because he can only really offer his resignation as the Nationals leader to the Nationals party room," former Nationals leader Michael McCormack said.

On Monday, Mr McCormack said Mr Joyce had "some explaining to do", and he would "seriously consider" putting his hand up again for the top job.

"I'll weigh that up at the time - if enough members of the party came to me and asked me to lead the party, I would seriously consider that, I've taken them to an election, I've retained every seat," Mr McCormack said.

"I appreciate many members are disgruntled about the focus on personalities and not the people we serve and I think we need to get back to earning the trust of the people we do serve."

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However, no challenge eventuated. In fact, after Mr Joyce admitted his mistake, the meeting ended without any criticism of the incident.

It's believed support for Mr Joyce is split down the middle, after one of his supporters, Senator Sam McMahon left the party room. However, it was always unlikely for his leadership to be challenged so close to an election.

Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud said incident had been "blown out of proportion" and labelled it a "sideshow that really no one out there's really interested".

"The Deputy Prime Minister will obviously come in and give us an explanation, and set the record straight, but there is no mood for any change," Mr Littleproud said.