Joyce ditches Nationals, coy on One Nation defection
Speculation is growing after renegade MP Barnaby Joyce resigns from his long-timer party the Nationals in Canberra.
Source: Sky News Australia
Renegade MP Barnaby Joyce is still deciding on whether to join right-wing minor party One Nation after resigning from the Nationals.
The twice-deputy prime minister and former leader of the rural party cited an irreparable breakdown in his relationship with current leader David Littleproud.
Joyce had already announced he wouldn’t recontest his seat of New England at the 2028 election.
“After 30 years with the National Party, I’m resigning from the party and that really leaves me with a heavy heart,” he told the lower house in a 90-second statement.
Joyce later said he was considering a tilt at the Senate, potentially with One Nation, where he would have more of a chance to push for change.
Labor holds a commanding majority in the house but is in minority in the Senate, where the Greens hold the balance of power.
You might like
Joyce said the Senate make-up could change at the next election, giving minor parties more power, especially as One Nation soars in the polls.
“I think that it’d be really hard for the coalition to win the next election … and therefore in the house, especially if you’re sort of on the outer, you’re not relevant,” Joyce told reporters after his statement in the chamber.
“In the Senate, you’ve got more capacity in the committee system, and also the numbers I reckon in the Senate will be tighter after the election.”
Former opposition leader Peter Dutton, who lost his seat at May’s federal election, had also pushed him to resign twice, Joyce said.
“You get to a point where you think, am I just going to continue on being the discordant note, or am I going to get out?”
Aside from a 90-second conversation with Littleproud, neither the Nationals leader or deputy leader had made any communication to try and resolve the issue, Joyce claimed.
Stay informed, daily
Littleproud had publicly stated he hoped his predecessor would remain in the party.
There’s no love lost between the pair, however, after Littleproud dumped Joyce from his shadow cabinet after the election loss, citing the need for renewal.
Joyce said he had to find a more effective way to stand up for regional Australians but that he hadn’t made up his mind on whether to join One Nation.
He hasn’t sat in the Nationals’ party room since announcing in October that he wouldn’t recontest his seat.
Hanson stirred controversy on Monday by wearing a burqa in the Senate as she tried to push a private member’s bill to ban the religious garment.
Her stunt and comments about the burqa were widely condemned, and she was subsequently censured and barred from the chamber for seven sitting days.
Hours later, Hanson hosted Joyce for dinner in her office, with photos then circulated of the firebrand senator cooking steaks on a sandwich press.
Joyce’s Nationals’ colleagues had worked for weeks to convince their former leader to stay in the party.
–AAP
