Barnaby Joyce retains New England despite marriage backlash
Barnaby is back. Barnaby Joyce had a thumping victory in the rural seat of New England and gave his strongest indication yet he will challenge for the leadership of the National Party.
NSW
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Barnaby is back. Barnaby Joyce had a thumping victory in the rural seat of New England and gave his strongest indication yet he will challenge for the leadership of the National Party.
The former deputy prime minister weathered a backlash from his public marriage breakdown and child with partner Vikki Campion.
After earlier in the day saying he expected to “take a bit of a haircut” because of his divorce, Mr Joyce later speculated people took pity on the way his messy split played out in the headlines.
Primary votes showed a swing towards him since the last general election, when he was still married to his first wife Natalie.
“50 per cent of people go through divorces. A lot of people thought: ‘That could be me you’re talking about’,” Mr Joyce said.
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A bullish Mr Joyce left his party faithful celebrating in Tamworth at 9pm to drive for an hour and 20 minutes home to Armidale to be with Ms Campion, who is heavily pregnant with the couple’s second child and could not join the campaign.
He was coy about his leadership aspirations during live TV crosses from the Tamworth Tennis Club but wasn’t as guarded in person.
“There’s always a spill on positions after an election but I’ll let my colleagues make up their minds on party leadership,” he said.
“If you want to represent these people, you make yourself as potent as you can possibly be.”
Mr Joyce resigned as deputy prime minister and Nationals leader in February 2018 because of the scandal surrounding his affair and allegations of sexual harassment, which he strenuously denied.
His replacement, Riverina MP Michael McCormack, easily retained his rural seat.
The din of leadership speculation that dogged Mr McCormack before Saturday’s ballot will likely become a roar.
The charismatic Joyce was so upbeat about his win, he joked he would have won in Warringah, where Tony Abbott was rolled by independent Zali Steggall.
While Mr Joyce was widely criticised during the campaign for a very tense and “shouty” interview with the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas about a controversial $80 million deal undertaken by the government when he was water minister, he claims it actually won him votes.
“They like the fact that I’m a bit more robust in what I say. What other people mock, even the Patricia Karvelas interview, people around here like it.”
Mr Joyce attributed his victory to resisting a rising tide of climate change activism and building dams.
“Talk about power prices, talk about infrastructure, talk about jobs and don’t engage with socialists about socialist polices,” he said.
“Look at the people around here; they can’t afford their power bill.
“Some of them have gone off the grid — not because they’re trying to save the climate but because they can’t afford the power bill.”
Independent Adam Blakester needed women to wallop Mr Joyce at the polling booths to stand any chance of an upset victory.
“We always thought with the appalling track record of the incumbent, there’d be more voters looking for a new representative,” Mr Blakester said last night.
Mr Blakester’s campaign was sunk at a Sky News panel in Tamworth on May 8, when he refused to rule out banning live cattle export.
“This issue has popped up a couple of time but it hasn’t come up as a major issue,” Mr Blakester told Sky News host Paul Murray.
“I’d take further advice from the electorate.”
According to Mr Joyce, his position was not as damaging as sitting on the fence in an electorate that likes straight shooters.
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