Matt Canavan has declared “we need more Australian everything” – including babies, farming and fossil-fuel powered barbecues – after being elected Nationals leader in a party room vote on Wednesday.

The Queensland rightwinger defeated Kevin Hogan and Bridget McKenzie in a three-cornered contest to replace David Littleproud, who blind-sided colleagues on Tuesday by announcing he was stepping down as leader.

In a press conference immediately after the ballot, Canavan said Australians were at risk of “losing our country” under the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and Labor.

“People are losing their standard of living, they’re losing their confidence,” he said.

“We’re losing our relaxed and larrikin nature, and we have to fight back for all Australians.”

But the former management consultant and Productivity Commission staffer said the solutions to the country’s problems were all present in Australia.

“We need to have more Australian farming, more Australian manufacturing, more Australian jobs.

“We need to have more Australian everything. We need to manifest a hyper-Australia.

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“We need more Australian babies. We need more Australian humour, more Australian jokes, more Australian barbecues, sometimes often fuelled by fossil fuels. We need more Australian everything. We don’t need to look overseas for our solutions.”

Victorian Darren Chester was elected deputy leader, replacing Hogan. McKenzie will remain the party’s Senate leader.

Canavan said he did not expect any major shift in the relationship between the Nationals and the Liberal party, after a rocky nine months since the last election, in which the Coalition split twice under Littleproud.

The Liberal leader, Angus Taylor, congratulated Canavan and Taylor.

“They understand regional and rural Australia. They understand the pressures facing families, farmers and small businesses. And they will provide strong leadership for the Nationals at an important moment for our country,” he said.

Asked about rumours he could seek to move to the lower house, Canavan did not rule out a tilt, but said his top priority was leading the party. He has been publicly linked to the seat of Capricornia, now held by Nationals MP Michelle Landry.

The new leadership team will be tasked with helping to rebuild the Coalition’s dire position in the polls and fending off One Nation’s attempt to gain a foothold in regional Australia.

The first test will come at the 9 May Farrer byelection, which was triggered by former Liberal leader Sussan Ley’s retirement from parliament.

Canavan said identity politics was creeping across the political divide, suggesting the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, was trying to pit Australians against one another.

“Pauline has been in politics for more than double the time I have been and I struggle to point to a single dam, a single road, a single hospital that Pauline has delivered in Australia.

“I can point to swathes of those things from the work I’ve done with Michelle Landry, Colin Boyce and others in central Queensland.”

Elected in 2013 after serving as the chief of staff to then Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, Canavan has emerged as the country party’s most hardline and influential rightwing voice.

He led the campaign to dump net zero by 2050, has advocated for building new coal-fired power stations and opposed Covid-19 vaccine mandates.

Canavan has also opposed the US and Israel’s attack on Iran, which he has described as “America’s regime change war”.

Asked about his positions on top-line political issues, Canavan confirmed reporting by Guardian Australia this week that he had accessed a federal government rebate scheme to install solar power, despite claiming subsidies were a “green energy scam”.

“All I stood for, all I’ve argued for, which, which we’re all doing right now as a Nationals and Liberal team, is that we use all of our God-given resources for the benefit of the Australian people,” he said.