Christian Kerr writes:

The
first week back in Canberra – the first week with majority in both houses – has been a
scrappy affair for the Government. And most of the scrapping has been over the
neophyte National from Queensland, Barnaby Joyce, and his very public positioning on a whole range of
issues.

Joyce is no doubt having a wow of a time – because he obviously
hasn’t realised that the media always wants to hear from politicians. That they
always want to be their friends. Until…

By
leading with them, Joyce has delivered his balls – unconditionally – to
the media. They are no doubt delightedly holding them in ransom for his future
performances. Does
Joyce actually realise that he’s signed up to serve
many more masters than just the Queensland Nationals?

The
meeja are happy to let him run that line for now, but there’ll be trouble later
if he doesn’t dance to their tune – and they’ve got more of them than a 60
gig iPod. Joyce has said he’ll split from his coalition colleagues and
vote differently when appropriate. His mates in the media will have all sorts
of ideas about when this is so – and when they clash, there’ll be trouble.