The aspiring Coalition MP tapped to replace its candidate dumped over extreme comments made to far-right podcasts turns out to be an ardent Trump supporter and one of the figures behind a pro-gas industry astroturf campaign.
Over the weekend the Liberal Party disendorsed Benjamin Britton, who had been running for the NSW seat of Whitlam ahead of the May 3 election, after he claimed “diversity and equity quotas, Marxist ideology and woke ideologies” had undermined Australian security, and that he believed women should not serve in the military.
“Why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females, the ones that are the backbone of your society. Your society only exists because of women. Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?” Britton said.
It was announced over the weekend that Britton would be replaced by Nathaniel Smith, a former New South Wales MP for Wollondilly and the CEO of the Master Plumbers’ Association.
“Nathaniel has been a passionate advocate for small businesses and investment in trades and training,” the Coalition statement said. “He will campaign to ease Labor’s cost of living burden on local households and small businesses, and help people struggling under the growing burden of mortgages, rents, and everyday expenses.”
Renew Economy previously reported that Smith was a director of Australians for Natural Gas, a fossil fuel industry cut-out created in collaboration with gas company Tamboran Resources managing director and CEO Joel Riddle, and Lyndal Maloney, a founder of the Conservative Political Action (CPAC) conference’s Australian franchise.
Follow up reporting by the ABC found Freshwater Strategy, a Coalition internal polling outfit, was helping build support for the group ahead of the election.
Smith previously held the seat of Wollondilly as a state-Liberal MP between 2019 and 2023, where he served as the party whip, but was beaten by an independent candidate, Judy Hannan, who was supported by Climate 200.
The former MP has also reportedly been a long-time admirer of Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” movement.
Multiple sources told Renew Economy that during his tenure in state parliament, Smith kept a large stuffed bear made in the image of Trump, and other paraphernalia.
Stickers on Smith’s office fridge read “All aboard the Trump train!” and “Let’s go Brandon”, an internet meme and political slogan that is a euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden” used to attack the former US President. A Trump bumper sticker also adorned the door in his parliamentary office.
After state politics, Smith was hired to head up Master Plumbers NSW just as the group was partnering with the Master Plumbers Association of Australia and New Zealand (MPANZ) to fight plans to phase out gas in Australian homes.
At the time Greg McElroy, Master Plumbers President said the organisation had “kicked a goal in getting Nathaniel on board”.
“In most recent years, he followed his dad’s footsteps into the world of politics, becoming an elected member of the NSW Parliament up until the last State election,” McElroy said.
“Clearly, he has an advocacy knowledge and skills for our industry through years of contacts gathered in Parliament, plus a hands-on understanding of the plumbing industry.”
Smith is a former Young Liberal who belongs to the Coalition’s hard right and whose father, Greg Smith, was a former New South Wales Attorney General.
Describing the industry association’s campaign goals, McElroy added: “The advocacy we are applying to these Government bodies is to save the gas sector of our livelihood and to make the community aware that the cost will be enormous for homeowners to delete gas from their lives.”
Even in that role Smith appeared to keep up his enthusiasm for the current US President, ordering a red MAGA-style baseball cap with the words “Make Plumbing Great Again” printed on the front in March 2023.
Smith posted photos of himself wearing the hat at workplace BBQs and during a Menzies Institute presentation by former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in December 2024.
A post to the official Master Plumbers NSW Facebook page said: “Even Boris Johnson wants to make plumbing great again! Our CEO, Nathaniel Smith, had the privilege of meeting Boris Johnson last night and convinced him to don the hat!”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has sought to distance himself from Trump throughout the election campaign, even as he has suggested a future Coalition government would have “friends” in the US President’s administration and he has been accused of copying Trump policies.
Smith, meanwhile, appears to be a firm believer in “drill, baby, drill”, telling the Master Plumbers NSW membership in 2023 that financial support provided by the federal government to aid the transition “fired a shot across the bow as a warning to the natural gas industry in Australia”.
He also described similar Victorian government policies as “extreme”.
“The gas industry must act and act fast,” he wrote.
Since that time Smith has publicly campaigned against phasing out gas in the home, government support for the introduction of electric vehicles and heat pumps. He has also promoted so-called “renewable gas” – which does not yet exist.
Tamboran resources is a US-owned gas company attempting to open the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory to fracking.
Tamboran donated $28,000 to NT Labor ahead of the Territory election in 2024 and recruited former Chief Minister Nicole Manison as vice-president of government relations and public affairs after she retired from politics that year.
The company also has strong ties to the Trump administration. Before his appointment, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright served as CEO of Liberty Energy, a company with a $15.2m equity stake in Tamboran.
Smith did not respond by publication.
