‘You’ll lose out’: Barnaby’s warning to rich toying with teal flip
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned rich people to talk to their accountants before voting for teal independents, because the won’t ‘barrack’ for the wealthy.
Federal Election
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Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has warned rich people to talk to their accountants before voting for the Climate 200-backed “teal’’ independents.
Mr Joyce said the independents would never be in a position to formulate economic policy and wouldn’t “barrack’’ for people with high incomes.
He was speaking in Ayr in regional Queensland on Thursday, before millionaire former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull used a speech in Washington to urge people to consider voting for independents such as the teals, who are mounting serious challenges against moderate Liberals in Sydney and Melbourne.
The most high-profile of these battles is in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, where Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is under serious challenge from Monique Ryan.
In NSW, Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney and Dave Sharma in Wentworth are also struggling to hold back the teal tide, as is Tim Wilson in Melbourne’s Goldstein.
While the teals are only seriously challenging Liberals, Mr Joyce warned against voting out moderates from both the Liberal and Labor parties.
“If you don’t have any moderates that comes from the suburbs inside either of the parties that are developing tax policy, that’s a pretty silly economic decision,’’ he said.
“You should have a strong yarn with your accountant before you go down a path like that.
“Don’t turf them out.
“Ultimately your Treasurer (Mr Frydenberg) is a moderate who comes from an area of great wealth.’’
Mr Joyce, who said he’d been talking to his cousins from the rich Melbourne suburb of Toorak, said the people most likely to lose out from changes to economic policy were “people with great wealth’’.
He warned that the “fruits of your labour’’ if the independents were elected meant people from wealthy areas would have a local MP who was never going to be treasurer, assistant treasurer or finance minister.
“If policy comes forward and you have an issue with it because it might affect some of your portfolio, or something of what you own, who do you think is going to be in there barracking for you? Because you’ve kicked them out,’’ he said.
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Originally published as ‘You’ll lose out’: Barnaby’s warning to rich toying with teal flip
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