The Sauce: Nats MPs out their leader John Barilaro as an angry texter
Following news the Premier was driven to the edge by her deputy’s angry texts, The Sauce can reveal Nats MPs were lining up to tell their own John Barilaro texting tales of woe. PLUS: Why minister Darren Chester had no reason to smile this week.
NSW
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John Barilaro’s angry text messages may have pushed Premier Gladys Berejiklian to the edge, but it appears the NSW Nationals leader has a reputation for firing off some textual insults.
Canberra sources say Barilaro has previously sent threats to his federal colleagues, including Damian Drum.
Barilaro allegedly told the Victorian MP he’d “go nuclear” after Drum mocked his short-lived run for Eden-Monaro.
Nationals renegade Llew O’Brien has also been on the receiving end of a Barilaro tantrum, after the two men clashed at the Gold Coast event.
The Sauce understands the spat continued over SMS and threatened to turn ugly when the pair met in the pollie-heavy Canberra suburb of Manuka to sort out their differences.
Ever heard of a smiley face emoji, guys?
AWKWARD ENCOUNTERS
As their bosses were engaged in a hostile stand-off on Friday, staffers for both the Nationals and Liberals were struggling to avoid each other, given the offices for the Nats and Libs are on the same floor — in fact, across the corridor.
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This was especially the case in the men’s rest room, where Nationals staffers waiting to see if they would be losing their jobs were having to stand next to their Liberal counterparts.
“It was sort of awkward,” a Nationals staffer said. The Sauce is reliably informed it’s always best to look straight ahead.
RINSE AND DON’T REPEAT
Victoria’s strict lockdown must be getting to Nationals Minister Darren Chester. On Tuesday the Veterans Affairs Minister stumbled into his bathroom and started cleaning his teeth with Deep Heat.
Now, that’s what you call a deep clean.
Luckily, Chester was able to find the funny side after he confused the white ointment used for muscle aches and pains with Colgate.
Turning his misfortune into a public service announcement, the frontbencher advised everyone to turn on the lights when undertaking dental care.
“In the half light I started brushing with Deep Heat,” he said. “You would think the smell would give it away but nope, got a few strokes in before I figured it out.
“For the record, toothpaste tastes better, so don’t try this at home.”
GIVE IT AWAY
It wasn’t just their ministerial positions that the seven defiant NSW Nationals faced giving up should John Barilaro have led them to the crossbench in the koala revolt of last week.
In between passing the popcorn, Labor insiders mused at just how much the ministers would have been sacrificing – with the total adding up to $1.2m.
While each of them would have retained their base salary, they would have foregone a raft of “top up” payments ranging from $33,838 to $174,000, the latter going to Barilaro.
They would also have had to forego their drivers, along with up to 65 additional taxpayer-funded political staff.
However, a senior Nationals source told us that the MPs were willing to do just that.
“During the meeting, MPs voted unanimously to back their leader in allowing the Premier to sack them if he did not get the result he wanted,” the source said.
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