Prime Minister stops Barnaby Joyce taking entire urban infrastructure portfolio off Paul Fletcher
THE first signs of a civil war within the Coalition emerged weeks before Barnaby Joyce’s affair with a young staffer became public — as the Prime Minister was forced to intervene to stop a blatant “power grab” by the Nationals leader involving the country’s biggest infrastructure projects.
National
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PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull intervened to stop Barnaby Joyce stripping Paul Fletcher of his entire urban infrastructure portfolio, including responsibility for Western Sydney Airport, with questions arising over the Deputy Prime Minister’s “poor judgment.”
In the weeks before the love-child scandal broke, Mr Joyce’s judgment was being questioned at senior levels of the government and he faced accusations of creating conflict in the Coalition as he tried to take control of most of the infrastructure projects in Mr Fletcher’s Urban Infrastructure and Cities portfolio.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal in the wake of the cabinet reshuffle where Mr Joyce took over Infrastructure from rival Darren Chester, he submitted a draft ministerial charter letter to Mr Turnbull.
In it he outlined that he would now be taking carriage of the majority of infrastructure projects previously in Mr Fletcher’s portfolio, including the $6-billion Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek, WestConnex, NorthConnex, Western Sydney Airport, the North-South Corridor in Adelaide, Metronet in WA and Monash Freeway in Victoria.
Even though the Nationals leader usually has carte blanche to decide what he oversees, Mr Turnbull intervened and told Mr Joyce control of the Western Sydney Airport and other crucial projects would remain with Mr Fletcher, who has successfully overseen them thus far.
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But Mr Joyce succeeded in taking from Mr Fletcher two significant areas within his portfolio — Infrastructure Australia and the Infrastructure and Project Financing Agency. “This was an out and out power grab and extremely poor judgment,” one source familiar with the situation said.
And the source said the tensions Mr Joyce was causing in the Coalition began in the weeks before the revelations about his baby with his former media adviser Vikki Campion.
“The nature of the infrastructure portfolio is such that you need a degree of co-operation across the Coalition,” the source said. “This unpicks all the good work that was done with Trussy (Warren Truss) and then Darren to work cooperatively across government.
The idea that you can just run roughshod over people who (you) see as beneath you doesn’t sit well with a number of the colleagues.”
The source added there was a difference between “hard politics and dumb politics”.
Mr Fletcher had worked successfully with Mr Chester, Mr Joyce’s predecessor in Infrastructure portfolio.
Under the Coalition agreement, Mr Turnbull had his hands tied and did not have any real authority to decide what Mr Joyce would take responsibility for in the portfolio he chose. But it is understood he took the extraordinary step of refusing to allow Mr Joyce to take carriage for major pieces of infrastructure that were being delivered.
Mr Fletcher’s office said inquiries regarding portfolio responsibilities should be directed to the PM’s Office. Mr Turnbull declined to comment and Mr Joyce did not respond to questions.