I'm Daniel James and you're listening to seven Am. Barnaby Joyce has always been considered a political maverick, and it's this status as a bit of an outsider that's allowed him to weather numerous political scandals during his two decades in parliament. But now he says he's leaving the National Party, and as it comes to light that he's been speaking with Pauline Hanson, there's talk he may jump across to one nation. So how out of place would Barnaby Joyce
be in Pauline Hanson's party. Today journalist and founder of Rampart News Joe Aston on whether this is the end of Barnaby's turbulent career in politics or the start of a new chapter. It's Saturday, October twenty five, Joe. On Tuesday, Barnaby Joyce gave a frankly bizarre press conference in Tamworth. Me through what he had to say.
Well, I mean, I don't think he expected his talks with Pauline Hansen to become public when they did, and that's sort of put him in an awkward situation.
It completely blew my weekend out of the water. It made things incredibly awkward and I just thought, okay.
But ultimately there he was trying to explain how he was such a loyal guy that he was going to not run again in his seat of New England.
This is a really hard decision that I made, and I thought of it over a very long period of time as things got sort of worse, worse and worse, to be honest, and now I've made it. There's nothing that's changed in the last couple of days.
That he was going to not quit the Nationals and remain in Parliament as a Nationals MP, but not attend party room meetings because his relationships had broken down so badly with his colleagues.
Look, I look, I just it's been a pretty traumatic issue. I'm still basically a member of the National Party. I have not joined another party, but I think that's for me to consider over time, and you can't.
And then what was to happen subsequent to the next election was all something that he would like to remain a mystery.
I'm not a member of one nation. I have not asked for a membership form. I'm still a member of the National Party, you know. But that's I'm being as honest as I can so I don't talk in riddles to you.
So, as you can imagine, there are many many questions that Barnaby faced in relation to all of those ambiguities that made it difficult for his fancy his self narrative to survive.
He said that his relationship with the current party leadership had like a sadness in some marriage is broken down.
David mentioned a generational change of the last election. That's the reason that he was moving on from me. Generational. If you my partner, and you came home one night and said, look for reasons of generational change, I don't think this relationship's going well, you'd think that was pretty much it. And if they said, well we don't want you to go out and campaign anywhere, that's like saying, well, I also don't want you to go to any parties with me or be seen in public with me.
So exactly how bad have things gotten in that party room?
Well, that's been a dysfunctional party room for a long time. The terminal government was when Barnaby Joyce had to resign as Deputy Prime Minister over his extramarital affair with one of his staff who's now his partner. So that's when Michael McCormack became Deputy Prime Minister, and of course Barnaby then sat on the back bench undermining Michael McCormack and then tore him down as leader and replaced him, and then he lost the leadership.
To David Little Proud.
And has been sitting on the back bench doing undermining again, and Michael McCormack's been doing a bit of his own. So there's almost like twelve factions in the National Party Room, you know, one faction for each person. Barnaby would like us to believe that his relationship with the National Party and with the leader, David Little Proud, has broken down
irreparably like a marriage. But in actuality, all that's happened is that the National Party room doesn't want Barnaby Joyce to be its leader now or ever, and to him that's.
The same thing.
A normal person would understand that that's the position, sit on the back bench, be a member of the team and accept that they can't be the leader. But for Barnaby, any relationship in which he is not the bright shining star is irreparably broken.
So it came out that Barnaby and Polint Hanson had been talking behind the scenes for some time, but immediately after he gave that press conference, Polin Hanson came out and was publicly calling Barnaby to come across to one nation.
Barnaby, I'll open you, open the doors for you, come across one nation.
What are the chances of that actually happening and would it be a good fit.
I think Barnaby made it clear from the very beginning when he was elected to Parliament at the two thousand and four election, that the party line and the rules of the party system I really need to hear all there to him. And so it's not that surprising to think that, having been so disloyal to so many different iterations of the Liberal and National Party governments and oppositions, that he would think twice about moving to another party. And you know, he battled one Nation over the years
in elections. But really Barnaby is one of the early populists two thousand and four we didn't really use that expression, but you know, Barnaby's views on the world are very similar to Paul and Hanson's, Clive Palmer's, and without drawing too long ago, Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.
So why wouldn't Barnaby Joyce go to One Nation. I think it'd be a perfect fit.
I actually did ring her last night, I said on the front set because I thought, seeing they're talking about us, all of us will speak to each other rather than speak through the media.
Said good eight.
Nothing is locked in, nothing is you know, and I've gone from.
Even How would you describe their relationship betwe between Barnaby and Pauline though over the years. Would it be a perfect fit in terms of both of those egos being in the same room at the same time.
Well, it's a perfect fit for those of us who are looking for entertainment and there will be no shortage of that. Then Pauline Hanson, much like Clive Palmer, has fallen out with every counterparty they've ever had in politics. David Oldfield, I mean Clive Palmer was with Jackie Lamby and so on and so forth. There is no reason to expect that the relationship between Pauline Hanson and Barnaby
Joyce would not end up in the same way. Pauline Hanson will really, let's face it, be loath who ever surrender the leadership of One Nation, but.
At some stage Hanson's One Nation Party at some stage someone else deleted it.
Totally agree with you, Chris. I'm not that stupid.
I'm not. I haven't got an ego that big mind.
She's even got her name in the name, the legal name of the party. It's legally called Pauline Hanson's One Nation and Barnaby. I will be highly amused. And I'm also almost hoping that Barnaby falls for the promises of Polane Hanson goes to One Nation and finds out that an actual factor, she has every intention of being carried out of the Senate in a box, and that Barnaby Joyce is never going to be the leader.
I mean, that will be fun to watch.
Coming up. Will any others followed Barnaby to the exit? Jae, You describe Barnaby Joyce as political novel chock in your view, Why has he been so uniquely destructive to the Coalition over the past two decades.
Well, it's just who he is, just a purely self interested political product. He's never had any interest at all, even necessarily in winning. It's all about himself, in his own aggrandizement and being the center of attention, and.
That's worked for him.
Barnaby Joyce has been very successful as a populist on the fringes and at the same time be absolutely repugnant to your average middle metropolitan voter, and that's why they've had to keep him hidden away in his electorate. Not that Peter Dunton had a great much more success than Barnaby, but you know the point is, every time Barnaby Joyce or Matt Canavan talk about how much they hate net zero, your average person in the city thinks that the Coalition are a pack of climate change denies.
And that's because the large part of them are.
So Whether is the source of this and the head of the serpent is net zero? A lunatic policy, complete lunacy.
That's just hugely toxic for the Liberal Party in the cities, and that's why they've lost so many seats. At the same time, people do love him in the country. I think he's definitely got popularity. He seemed to cut through and you know he got this. He's got this brand of being no nonsense, which is highly ironic because all he speaks is nonsense.
He's often described as a political maverick. Do you think that status and that branding has actually helped him brush off all these scandals over the years.
Yeah. Look, it's a really good question. When did it go from professional to romantic?
I think we were closed for a long time before there was anything, a long time after other people thought it out.
That's look, he got the first person to have an office affair in politics, but it came at a very febrile time. Globally, the me too movement was in full light, and it was before the Britney Higgins scandal, but there was already a real feeling in Australia that people were fed up with the way politicians behaved in Canberra. I mean, not that Barnaby's really reformed his way. As we all know, he was found gibbering frustrate on the footpath one sitting night earlier this year.
The brief video appears to show the front Beat.
You're laying beside a plant box swearing into his phone.
Yeah, wouldn't have sunk a lesser politician. To be fair to him, he does break the mold a bit. And the thing is Barnaby has no shame, and he doesn't really have any consistent views on anything, and he has no serious solutions for policy problems. So therefore it's very hard to hurt it politically and in many respects. That describes Donald Trump and Nigel Farage and others who have been successful. Now, obviously no one is suggesting that Barnaby
Joyce could ever lead Australia. And the difference, of course in Australia, as the right wing of the National Party and the hard right wing of the Liberal Party continue to misunderstand, is Australia is a compulsory voting preferential system. You win elections from the middle, and that is completely different to the US and the UK, which are voluntary voting systems where you win the elections by getting people to vote by energizing voters with the most polarizing views.
So this dreamland that Barnaby Joyce and others of his ilk live in where they watch Sky News and believes that being more conservative is the answer for the Liberal Party in the National Party is going to lead them to shrink even further.
I mean, I don't know how badly they.
Want to lose, but I don't know who the last person will be standing when they turn off the lights.
Probably Barnaby. He's announced that he'll quit the party and not recontest the next election. What's the reaction being in the broader coalition to his announcement.
Well, look, everyone has to be careful what they say, right because Barnaby will change his mind. Barnabill come back. The shifting sands and fashions and allegiance has changed. So you don't want to be stapled to what you've said about Barnaby on the record. But certainly behind closed doors there are many Liberal MPs who would be very happy
to see the back of him. On the other hand, the National Party quite understandably fought very effectively a national campaign to win the seats that they won and having already lost, you center price to lose Barnaby Joyce. You know, they're not a huge party room. It's a really big loss to lose two MPs in quick succession. I'm not saying that it's a big loss to lose those two individuals,
but it's a big loss to lose those seats. And you know, as been discovered time and again, once an independent holds a seat, it's very hard to get you back.
Now.
Barnaby of course is not going to run again in that seat, so he says today.
But you know, it's then again a wide open contest.
Will the Nats be able to win that seat next time or will some independent come out of nowhere and all of a sudden it's a loss.
What does it all say about the state of leadership inside the Nationals under David Little Prowd, Well.
I look, in some respects you almost have to have some sympathy for Barnaby's position. It wouldn't be the most inspiring flag to follow, would it. David Little Proud is a bit of a bag of hammers, and he's certainly know John Anderson, and he's certainly know Tim Fisher. But that's sort of the quality of politics in general. The leaders of today. They are not like the leaders of yesterday. And maybe everyone says that when they're old, how good
with the good old days? But I am constantly flabbergasted at the just abysmal quality of the political class in Australia today.
Could Barnaby's potential defection to one nation trigger others to follow?
I think so yeah, And I think that's the real threat here. There's no real loss, you know, losing Barnaby Joyce in fact, is a victory. The real risk here is contagion where Barnaby also takes you know, Matt Canavan, you know, in a couple of other MPs and all of a sudden you got five people jump over. The National Party loses thirty or forty percent of its party room in one hit. That is the real risk here. Barnaby talks about a marriage that is a reparably broken down.
I'll tell you the only marriage that's actually a reparably broken down here is the marriage between the Liberal Party and the National Party. And when the National Party after the election in May had their tantrum and said we're not going to stay in the coalition, the biggest mistake certainly made was not to stand down and wave goodbye
and say thanks for coming. Frankly, the Liberal Party would be better off as a standalone party with its own policies that have peeled a middle Australia, and they could figure out at a later point whether or not they wish to govern with the National Party. I mean, it's just the death spiral that they're in with the National Party strapped to them and denying any need for climate action.
That's the existential problem, not just for the Liberal Party but for Australia, because regardless of whether you a Liberal or a Labor supporter, what Australia needs is a strong two party system. It is not good for Australia for the Labor Party or for any party to be completely dominant.
That's the one that I really worry about.
Well, Joe, it's going to be interesting to watch. Thank you so much for your insights.
On coming on the show. My Pleasure. Thanks JN.
Seven Am is a daily show from Solstice Media. It's made by Atticus Bastow, Chris Dngate, Ruby Jones, Sarah mcveee, Travis Evans and Zulton Fetcho. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hoagan of Envelope Portio. I'm Daniel James and tomorrow we'll be spotlighting an episode on China's long game on critical minerals domination and the old pile of mining waste of Western Australia which could appended See you then,