Having helped destroy a Coalition government, Barnaby Joyce now threatens to inflict immense damage on the Coalition — if there is to be one — in opposition.
In a profession riddled with giant egos and hypertrophied self-importance, Barnaby Joyce still stands out as Australia’s most selfish politician. At no stage have his numerous personal and political failures punctured his conviction that whatever Barnaby wants, Barnaby should get. And it doesn’t matter what the cost is to anyone else — his family, his colleagues, the national interest.
It’s a view that is a refinement of the basic Nationals ethos, that politics is about taking as much as possible from the nation without regard to anyone else.
Joyce leads a party that garnered just 4% of the national vote in the House of Representatives, along with a portion of the 7.7% of the LNP vote in Queensland. That is, he represents well under 10% of Australian voters — far fewer than the Greens, who secured nearly 12% of the vote nationally. The LNP vote fell by more than 4%. The Nationals’ overall vote fell by 0.3%. The only state where it rose was in Victoria — by 0.3%.
Can Joyce claim credit for that? Joyce only deigned to grace Victoria with his presence for a few hours in total in recent weeks, flying in and out just three times over the course of a six-week campaign. He didn’t dare go near the electorate of Gippsland, home of Darren Chester. Chester’s decency and commitment to the public interest are evidently unfathomable to Joyce, given he forced Chester out of the ministry when he returned to soiling the role of deputy prime minister last year. Chester got a 4.4% swing to him.
Joyce instead devoted considerable time to campaigning in the Northern Territory and the Hunter Valley. How’s that working out? The Country Liberals suffered an 8% swing in the NT and Labor held both its seats. Labor got a swing to it in Hunter. The “best retail politician in the country” lowered the vote where he campaigned, whereas it increased in seats he stayed clear of.
That as nothing, though, compared to his role in lowering the Liberal vote. Scott Morrison might have evoked visceral hatred among voters — especially women, who were waiting for him with baseball bats — but Joyce, along with Peter Dutton, formed a triumvirate of electoral toxicity with Morrison that it’s hard to recall the likes of.
Joyce provided a convenient, one-size-fits-all, all-you-can-eat symbol of what was wrong with climate policy, integrity, and the basic standards of decency in public life. Not for nothing did the teal independents make liberal — pun intended — use of the phrase “A vote for X is a vote for Barnaby”.
Surveying the smoking ruins of the Morrison government, Joyce — true to form — doesn’t care, saying it’s not his problem, comparing his influence to Tim Wilson losing Nationals votes in their seats, and flagging, inevitably, that net zero is again up for discussion.
Remember all those press gallery journalists who devoted acres of columns to explaining that Morrison’s net zero strategy was a piece of political genius and a major triumph that would end the climate wars? What staggeringly insightful analysis that proved to be — senior political journalists queueing up to tell us a turd wrapped in a ribbon was the merriest of Christmas gifts. It was always a meaningless target with a meaningless plan. Turns out the bribes and pork-barrelling that Joyce exacted as the price for his grunted, tired endorsement of net zero are meaningless now too.
We know Barnaby is innumerate — he once claimed Australia was at risk of defaulting when its net debt was $50 billion, compared to $700 billion now. But clearly that innumeracy extends to the process of forming government. The Nationals remain a rump of reactionary bystanders without the Liberals. They can’t conduct their rorting and thievery without the Liberals. Making the Liberals unelectable, even by the Nationals’ own standards of political conduct, is profoundly self-defeating for them. But Joyce seems committed to inflicting as much damage on his Coalition partners in opposition as he did in government.
The path back to power for the Liberals will be infinitely harder with Joyce than without. If the Nationals won’t do the honourable thing and dispatch him to the backbench — or preferably out of public life altogether — the Liberals, for self-preservation, need to abandon the Nationals until they come to their senses. Barnaby Joyce isn’t just selfish, he’s profoundly toxic.
I would say that Canavan is far worse, and that is really saying something
I think Canavan dumping on the 2050 target was up there with Morrison’s support of Katherine Deves as key elements in solidifying the Teal vote during the campaign. It showed that even the Coalition’s pathetic attempts at a climate policy were under threat if they were returned.
Staggering as is to think that someone is worse than Joyce, I agree.
Notwithstanding the hatchet job on BJ is thoroughly warranted.
An utterly despicable piece of work.
Canavan is Don Jr to the Beetrooter’s Trump. And the Nats overall are about as attractive as the contents of Joyce’s Y-fronts on a hot outback day
Let’s hope Cousin Jethro holds onto the Nat’s leadership, while Dutton rises to the top of the Liberal heap.It will put the Coalition leader talent on stark display. These two will have Australia’s female voters fleeing in droves from supporting them.
The Labor/Greens strategists could not have hoped for a happier outcome for the future of the Coalition. And the Teals will thrive.
And yet, oddly, some of them have married women – some more than once.
Horses are too smart!
Women throughout history have married all sorts of monsters and galahs – because if hey wanted children, there was no other choice.
Women who vote for the Liars just as easily have their horns swoggled as their male counterparts.
A pox on both their houses. Neither is any different in their pandering to the ultra wealthy. The driver for the Liberals of late has been the ex PM’s “extra curricular” belief system’s disciples and their “prosperity theology” financial dogma. What is worse is that they are still there and will continue with their deadly (think Robodebt just for one) policies, just waiting with them if this country should be so stupid as to re-elect them to govt ever again.
As Ross Gittins wrote today Scotty has God on his side. Porker Joyce is a devout Catholic and might claim the same. But they both need guidance from their pastor/priest about integrity, humility, empathy. And try to wind back their hypocrisy and arrogance and all too obvious bastardry.
Can’t be too devout if his extra marital carry on is any guide.
“need guidance”? They have just been booted very, very heartily in the arses at a federal election. If they don’t get that there is no hope for them.
Good luck with any Pentacostal minister ever telling his congregation that lying, cheating and daylight robbery is a sin.
I grew up in Country Party territory on the NSW mid north coast. I wasn’t a political kid, but quickly learned to detest the local overloads thanks to their toxic combo of racism and neglect. Decades on I fervently hope that Barnyard stays where he is for as long as possible, demonstrating day after day what the renamed County Party really stands for: Itself.
Ah yes, never forget the good old Country Party, and the proud claim of its MPs: “I’m a Country Member!” At least they were honest about that.
To which Great Gough replied “I remember!”
Thanks for Gough’s matchless wit.
To add piquancy, he was responding to the CLP’s Sir Winton Turnbull.
(Alas, not Winston, as often misquoted.)
The country hayseed MP’s are very big on knighthoods. Who can forget the sanctimonious Sir Joh who oversaw six of his members gaoled after the Fitzgerald inquiry. Sir Joh faced two perjury trials which saw his link to a juror stymie the trial.
It hasn’t changed much in rural Qld. Colin Boyce was elected in Flynn. He’s just barely smart enough to think he knows everything about climate change. The rest of us book learning woke communists are plotting world domination and must be stopped.
I remember the howls of outrage when Doug Anthony was caught using his ministerial car as a school bus for his kids. These days it is barely noticeable. Lying, rorting and pork barrelling is hardwired in both the Nationals and Liberals.
As my father used to say, country voters were always far better treated by Labor and without fail were kicked in the guts for their troubles.
Barnaby Joyce is also remembered for his attempt to turn Ian Turnbull, the wealthy Moree farmer and tree butcher who ambushed, tortured and murdered the NSW environmental officer Glen Turner, into a Ned Kelly figure. In a disgusting dog whistle to their base, Joyce along with the local mayor Katrina Humphries, said violence was “always going to happen”, essentially blaming the crime on discrimination against the agricultural community.
Another unforgivable act!
Just how electable is a Dutton/Joyce ticket ?
Only Rupert could fall for them.
Yes, that looks reasonable. Just like it was obvious Tony Abbott would never win an election here, Donald Trump was too appalling on every level be elected President of the USA in 2016, and the lying incompetent self-serving slug Boris Johnson could not be PM of the UK. I could list more, but let’s just remember the wise words of H L Mencken, a hundred years ago:
No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby. The mistake that is made always runs the other way. Because the plain people are able to speak and understand, and even, in many cases, to read and write, it is assumed that they have ideas in their heads, and an appetite for more. This assumption is a folly.
I might agree with you, but this time they did, (have an idea) and it has come to fruition. They dumped Scummo!
Basically true, but I tender Lincoln’s assertion –
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.
He’s not interested in them per se, only their utility in furthering his sole love in life, power.
Even money is of secondary interest – he already has too much of that to spend – but power is like smack, one can never have enough until OD.
The solution is to rid ourselves of Rupert by beefing up our media ownership and diversity and truth in news reporting and political ads laws with severe consequences like massive fines and revoking their licences to print, publish or broadcast for at least six weeks.
Would very swiftly bring Rupert, Stokes, Costello and Rhinohide to heel.
Rupert in Australia IS the MSM unfortunately and every youngish journalist knows he can’t afford to get offside with him. As long as 2GB/Costello/Murdoch shockjock media prosper, there will be zero media reform in Australia.
Sad times because the economy is already on the down slope and the NeoCons are past-masters at exploiting their casual laissez faire work.