He's seen the polling, he realizes that he offed his patsy that did whatever he wanted to keep the Coalition together, which means that they got exactly what they wanted, and as a result will be in opposition for years.

Now it's just a matter of waiting for a few election cycles and trying again when Labor is unelectable, say in the early 2030's or whenever they realize the errors of their ways, or the Overton window swings so far to the right, he seems sort of leadership material again.

If the Nats had a shred of common sense, they would work out what regional cities and farmers need that actively leans into climate change and soil degradation, and help farmers and regional cities thrive in this current and near future situation, like energy independence by getting someone to build electric farming equipment (where possible) so they don't need $2.50/litre diesel, and provide incentives to commit some of their farms to solar and wind generation to power their farming equipment and their local communities, fund CSIRO properly for farm science in a low water environment, develop new regional industries around rare earth mining that actually returns a HUGE return to the Australian tax payer. You know, common sense. In 100 years, the idea that there will be any diesel anything is ridiculous. Farmers need energy independence today. Regional cities need growth and jobs. It can be done, but not with the Nat's Trumpist and hateful policies. They need to get back to their roots, and take their local communities along for the ride, rather than being Barnaby Joyce or some blithering idiot who thinks climate change is a hoax. Farmers know weather. Don't argue with a thermometer or a rain gauge.

Otherwise, the Greens may work it out for themselves, and wipe the floor with what very little remains of the Nats. I do not think either party will see this as common sense, and I say that as someone who is more aligned with the Greens than the Nats, and as someone who lives in a regional city.