Barnaby Joyce quits Nationals after Pauline Hanson dinner
Colleagues scrambled to stop him. Access already cut. Now the former deputy PM has confirmed his next move after that dinner.
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has confirmed he will formally resign from the Nationals to sit as an independent - after his steak and salad dinner with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
But he’s stopping short of formally joining One Nation amid frantic last-minute overtures, including a Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie warning he risks “trashing” his reputation.
“Now, in the past, I’ve been asked to leave twice by Peter Dutton,” he said.
“When they talk about generational change, it’s pretty clear what people want.
“I’ve had no communication with either leader of the National Party or the deputy leader of the National Party to try and resolve this.
“With a heavy heart, and I apologise for all the hurt that that will cause other people. I really do.
“What is really important is that the Chinese Communist government are breathing down our necks.”
Speaking to reporters, Mr Joyce said the question of whether he would formally join One Nation was undecided.
“The smartest thing to do is move on,’’ he said.
“When they talk about generational change, that’s code for get out of here.”
Colleagues say the Nationals have already cut off his access to Feedback and the internal system for MPs.
Mr Joyce entered the chamber just after 1:30pm, waiting for his turn to make a 90-second statement.
Colleagues urged him not to take the step.
“Barnaby didn’t get into politics to be part of a protest party, he has done some significant things in his 20 years,’’ Senator McKenzie said.
“He’s built highways. He’s kicked Pistol and Boo out. He’s reformed our biosecurity laws.”
Pistol and Boo were Johnny Depp’s dogs that were evicted from Australia.
“So he’s actually done serious things, and his legacy is significant that will be trashed if he goes to One Nation.”
But speaking outside of the House of Representatives chamber, Mr Joyce conceded it was accurate that he was still considering a switch to One Nation and toying with the idea of standing for the Senate after the next election.
He will remain on the cross bench in the House of Representatives for now as an independent.
“That’s the truth, I’m considering,’’ Senator Joyce said.
“I think that it’d be really hard for the Coalition to win the next election. I hope they do, but I think it’s going to be really difficult from where they are, and therefore in the House, especially if you’re sort of on the outer you’re not relevant.
“We got somewhere with net zero, but I think that’ll be about it and I think 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, and because they’re tighter after election, I think you have more effect to have an effect.”
Mr Joyce has been under incredible pressure not to jump ship to the Nationals with one former colleague John ‘Wacka’ Williams leaking a text to Sky News warning he would regard him as a “political enemy” if he took the step.
In Parliament, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mocked the Coalition as a complete rabble.
“Instead of having tactics meetings..they are trying to paper over the cracks in the Coalition.
“It’s Playschool Mr Speaker, Playschool.”
Joyce confirms worst-kept secret
This week, Mr Joyce confirmed Canberra’s worst-kept secret, dining with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in a move that confirmed he was looking to jump ship from the Nationals.
Just hours after Ms Hanson threw on a burqa and high heels and marched into the Senate sparking chaos, the Queensland senator found time to dine with the former deputy prime minister.
Earlier, Barnaby Joyce defended her right to wear the burqa on free speech grounds, as his soon-to-be colleague Ms Hanson accused critics of a “freak out”.
“The usual hypocrites had an absolute freak out,” she said of her burqa protest.
“The fact is, more than 20 countries around the world have banned the burqa because they recognise it as a tool that oppresses women, poses a national security risk, encourages radical Islam, and threatens social cohesion.
“If these hypocrites don’t want me to wear a burqa, they can always support my ban.”
Timeline for a defection
The former deputy prime minister was expected to defect to Senator Hanson’s party following disagreements with Nationals leader David Littleproud.
“I just don’t want any circus. I’m trying to wait till the end of the sitting week,” Mr Joyce said on Monday when asked about his political future.
When asked directly whether he would make a move after parliament rises, he said: “I’ll see. If I was doing anything, I’d try and get out of the building.”
Previously, he confirmed he won’t stand again for the party at the next election but left the door open to a switch to One Nation.
“My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down,” he said at the time.
“The instructions that during the federal election I was not to campaign outside New England as that did not represent the views of the Nationals, then after the election being moved on for ‘generational change’ and just the atmospherics in the party room, where I am seated in the far corner of the Coalition in the chamber, means I am seen and now turning into a discordant note. That is not who I want to be.
“More importantly our position in continuing to support Net Zero with the massive schism and hurt to my electorate, to small businesses, to the environment, to the poor, to the defence of Australia and creating hate between lifelong friends in my community makes continuing in the Nationals’ Party Room in Canberra under this policy untenable.”
Mr Joyce said he would be free to consider options.
“I will not be standing for New England again but will complete my term as promised at the last election,” he said.
“I will leave with the greatest of love for all and money in the electorate bank account.
“I am free to now consider all options as to what I do next.
“I hope that the members understand the unfortunate position I am in and the obvious action after a period of consideration I must take.
“I wished I had been given more time to consider this and don’t know the motives of those who put the story out there.
“I am so desperately sorry as to the hurt this may cause and close with the deepest of affection for you all.”
Speculation mounts
It comes as the splintering of the Coalition over climate change continues.
Six months after Peter Dutton lost the 2025 election in a catastrophic landslide to Labor, Mr Joyce proposed a plan to reverse Australia’s net zero emissions target.
The campaign, backed by fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, aims to repeal what Mr Joyce calls Australia’s “lunatic crusade” of net zero by 2050.
One Nation refused to rule out the recruitment drive on Friday night, with Senator Hanson telling the Nine newspapers, “If Barnaby wants to come to One Nation, I’d be happy to have him”.
Mr Joyce declined to comment with his colleague Senator Matt Canavan insisting he had “no idea” what was going to happen.
It followed a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that other Coalition MPs could follow and jump ship.
Any departure by the former deputy prime minister would be another blow following the decision of Andrew Hastie to go to the backbench and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s expulsion from the frontbench.
In May, National Party leader David Littleproud announced the party would dump the Coalition agreement in the wake of the disastrous election result before promptly mending the fence.
He blamed a fight over the four policy issues, including the future of nuclear power and supermarket divestitures.
It was a historic move, one of the rare splits in opposition since the 1920s. But it didn’t last long.
Last year, Mr Joyce was diagnosed with a serious illness, and he was filmed lying on a Canberra footpath mumbling into a mobile phone.
The former Nationals leader had defiantly refused to take leave in recent weeks after the fallout from his Braddon misadventure made national headlines.
“I don’t take advice from people in Canberra,” he said.
“I take advice from my wife, my close friends, and my local GP. I do not listen to the views of people in this crazy boarding school they call parliament.
“Look, obviously, I made a big mistake — there’s no excuse for it.
“There is a reason, and it was a very eventful walk home wasn’t it. I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100 per cent right.”
At the time, Mr Littleproud confirmed that he had decided to take personal leave following a stressful period.
“He won’t be here this week. He’s notified me that he won’t be coming to parliament,” Mr Littleproud told Nine’s Today program.
“He’s having the week off, which we gave him the opportunity to undertake with his family [sic]. And I respect that. And I hope, hope he went to church yesterday and all he had was altar wine.”
The former deputy prime minister had declared he was ashamed and “embarrassed” after the video emerged, and he revealed he had mixed alcohol with prescription medicine.
“Barnaby’s embarrassed himself and his family, and while he’s clearly articulated some of the underlying issues and circumstances, there are other circumstances that I’m not going to break his confidence on,” Mr Littleproud said.
The bizarre footage recorded the Nationals frontbencher lying on the footpath in Canberra late at night while mumbling “dead f**king c***” into his phone.
Witnesses claim the MP had been sitting on a large pot plant while chatting on the phone before he fell off and started swearing into the phone.
Mr Joyce has made no secret of his mental health issues. He had previously written that he needed to seek help during his marriage breakdown.
“Winston Churchill had his black dog. Mine was a half-crazed cattle dog, biting everything that came near the yard,” Mr Joyce wrote in his book.
He eventually did seek the help of a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with depression.
He also started praying at a “special” rock he found on Canberra’s Red Hill.
Originally published as Barnaby Joyce quits Nationals after Pauline Hanson dinner
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