Pauline Hanson slams ‘skint’ Barnaby Joyce for crying poor on $200,000 a year

Barnaby Joyce has admitted it’s his fault he is living on such a tight budget after claims he was struggling to make ends meet on an MP’s $200k salary were slammed as ‘ridiculous’ by Pauline Hanson.

Barnaby Joyce says it is his “own fault” he didn’t budget better after revealing his finances are so tight he kills his own sheep for meat and turns off his heater at night to save money.

It comes after the former deputy prime minister faced a backlash today for claiming he was struggling to make ends meet on a $200,000-plus parliamentary salary.

“He feels skint? Where’s the tissues, my God,” One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said this morning.

Mr Joyce had opened up about his financial difficulties to News Corp to explain why he had broken ranks to call for a rise in dole payments for job-seekers.

He later told Sydney radio 2GB he wasn’t having a “whinge” and didn’t expect sympathy.

Mr Joyce said he was on an “incredibly good wage” and should have budgeted better but wanted to explain that his new circumstances had given him a change of heart about the Newstart payment.

“Obviously by my own circumstances, I’ve got two families, it’s not [that] I’m skint, but things are a little bit tighter than one would expect. I’ve got to make ends meet, and that gives me a real sense of, ‘How on earth does someone get by on $280 a week on Newstart?” he told 2GB.

Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

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“I know people have a sense of cynicism about it, maybe we could use the cashless debit card more.

“But just do the math yourself - if your rent’s $200 a week, that’ll leave you $80. After you pay your groceries, that means you’ve got none, and then how on earn do you pay your power bill or any other expenses?”

“It’s no whinge. I don’t expect it [sympathy]. I’m not skint. I’m on an incredibly good wage, I’m just trying to make sure that we move the argument.”

Mr Joyce, a father of six, is supporting his estranged wife and their youngest daughter, who’s in boarding school, as well as his current partner Vikki Campion and their two young sons.

“I’m just saying that in the process of budgeting, it’s my own fault. My marriage broke down, I’ve got other costs. I make sure that I’m a lot more cautious than I used to be,” Mr Joyce said of his finances this morning.

Mr Joyce has recently joined calls for an increase of the Newstart unemployment benefit, which hasn’t risen beyond inflation since the mid-1990s, in the face of federal government opposition.

The payment is $555.70 a fortnight for a single person without children, or $40 a day.

Senator Pauline Hanson has blasted Mr Joyce’s claim he is struggling to make ends meet on $211,000 a year. Picture: AAP

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Prime Minister Morrison shot down calls for a Newstart increase in Question Time again today, saying he would “not engage in the unfunded empathy of the Labor Party”.

“I will not go out as the Labor Party did at the last election pretending they’re going to do something about Newstart but they won’t tell Australians how much they’re going to increase it by, how much is that going to cost and how are they going to pay for it,” Mr Morrison told Parliament.

He said the best form of welfare was a job.

Speaking on the Nine Network’s Today Show, Senator Hanson said: “A lot of Australians out there would be saying ‘Gee, I wish I had $211,000 a year to help me put on the heater in my house.”

“What a ridiculous, stupid way to explain himself.”

Politicians were on a good wage but people on low incomes trying to survive on a few dollars a day needed a helping hand, Senator Hanson said.

“They do need an increase in the Newstart allowance,” she said.

“It shouldn’t be a way of life but people cannot get those jobs, they can’t get the extra employment they need.

“They need to pay rent and they need to be able to put food on the table. Let’s be realistic about this and try to help those people on Newstart allowance.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann did not comment on Mr Joyce’s claims but rejected calls to raise Newstart beyond the twice yearly increase indexed at CPI already in place.

“Newstart allowance is not designed to be a replacement salary. It is designed to be a transitional payment as you’re looking for a new job,” he told ABC radio.

Labor, Greens and crossbench senators last week voted to launch an inquiry into the rate of Newstart but Prime Minister Scott Morrison is standing firm against calls to lift the payment by $75 a week.

A survey of Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients conducted by the Australian Council of Social Service, released today, found more than four out of five (84 per cent) respondents skipped meals to save money, and about 44 per cent went without more than five meals a week.

Two-thirds could not afford to use heating during winter, while 68 per cent only had enough money to buy second-hand clothes.

More than half had less than $100 left per week after housing costs.

Labor, the Greens, crossbench politicians, coalition backbenchers and even former Liberal prime minister John Howard have also called for the payment to be raised.

Aside from twice yearly adjustments to Newstart in line with inflation, it has not seen a real increase for 25 years.

- with AAP

Originally published as Pauline Hanson slams ‘skint’ Barnaby Joyce for crying poor on $200,000 a year