Opinion: How Barnaby Joyce went from popular to pariah

IT’S hard to remember a more comprehensive destruction of politician’s previously sound and valuable brand than what’s happened to Barnaby Joyce over the past three months, writes Dennis Atkins.

IT IS HARD to remember a more comprehensive destruction of a politician’s previously sound and valuable brand than what’s happened to Barnaby Joyce over the past three months.

His completely amateur handling of the collapse of his marriage, the news of his relationship with his former staffer Vikki Campion and the baby they are about to have contained a foreboding air about it.

This was a politician who had become untethered from the grounded safety of the authenticity he had parlayed into becoming Australia’s deputy prime minister.

In the last week or so, Joyce has been venturing back into day-to-day politics, giving interviews and hitching his wagon to Tony Abbott’s quixotic tilting at the cooling towers of coal-fired power stations.

This week he piled on the blather surrounding the publication of the 30th losing Newspoll – the moment when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to face his failure to match the KPI he’d set when he toppled Abbott two-and-a-half years ago. Joyce was completely unhelpful but also truly revealing. Joyce told Turnbull if the Government hadn’t turned around by Christmas, he should “do the honourable thing” and stand down. Joyce even had this bit of gratuitous advice for the Prime Minister, which would have curled a few eyebrows in the Government: “The first thing you’ve got to be with the electorate is truthful.”

We can add to this a damaging leak on immigration policy which has Joyce’s fingerprints all over it.

This game-playing and backstabbing is genuinely galling given Joyce’s behaviour since the beginning of February. This was Joyce taking the final step on a journey from an authentic, straight-talking politician who stood out from the crowd to just another Canberra insider playing games.

This was just one of the things the passing 30th Newspoll has told us. It’s told us so much more.

Perhaps most importantly, we know that, barring an unknown, Turnbull is going to lead his government to the next election, which will most probably be held in the first four months of next year.

Turnbull is safe because there’s no proven alternative. The other big reveal is how the leadership future in the Liberal Party is now playing out.

The candidates shaping up for a post-Turnbull world have now emerged (at least most of them), with senior ministers Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg putting their ambition on the record.

Liberal deputy Julie Bishop hasn’t spoken the words but her ambition is just as real. Dutton appeals mainly to the conservative base, although his ability to relate with mainstream Australia cannot be ignored. Dutton’s tough on border protection, tough on crime, orthodox low taxing, small government approach has a bigger constituency than many political observers admit.

Morrison is also a staunch conservative with strong roots in the outer Sydney suburbs where aspiration and Hillsong churches go hand-in-hand.

Frydenberg is seen by many as best on ground for the government since the last election – keeping his nose clean in the leadership and policy wars, and showing a work ethic that’s almost unmatched.

Whenever the next Liberal leadership battle gets started – and it’s probably just 12 months away – it’s going to be a hard-fought and fascinating contest.

Dennis Atkins is The Courier-Mail’s national affairs editor