Barnaby Joyce finds out he’s lost his special envoy job via TV

Barnaby Joyce thought he’d be returning to his job as the special envoy to the drought after the election. But then he turned on the TV.

ANALYSIS

Barnaby Joyce didn’t know he had lost his job as drought special envoy until journalists told him.

“Just found out from you guys then,” he tweeted to Sky News yesterday.

By then he knew the shut-out was complete. The new government, fuelled by confidence and authority, had imposed a Barnaby ban.

There was no job for one of Australia’s most visible politicians.

Just found out from you guys then

— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) May 26, 2019

Appearing on Sky News this morning, Mr Joyce said the PM should’ve told him about the ousting.

“I would have (expected a phone call), but I didn’t and that’s life,” he told Sky News.

“That is the role a leader has, they can make that call. But I think it is incumbent upon them to relay that to person to people, not to have them to find out via Twitter.

“Why it’s important is because you’ve got staff and you’ve got to ring people up. The first call I made when I did find out was to my staff and to say: ‘I’m really sorry about that, going to try and find you a job, you’re a good staff member, I’m sure there’s work out there, I’ll try put a good word out there in the respected places’.”

.@The_Nationals MP @Barnaby_Joyce says he wasn't told by @ScottMorrisonMP or @M_McCormackMP that he was dropped as drought envoy, instead finding out via a Sky News twitter post after the PM announced his new-look ministry.

MORE: https://t.co/KDxRjOdQJg #FirstEdition #auspol pic.twitter.com/11LA97yxJP

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 26, 2019

The new ministry announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and endorsed by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, marked a public punishment of Mr Joyce, Mr McCormack’s predecessor.

His offences had been grievous and public and had strained the tolerance of the Nationals he once led.

The most obvious penalty was his omission from any role in the ministry.

It is important to remember Mr McCormack had the right under the Coalition agreement to nominate members of the government’s executive from his party.

“Yes though he obviously consults me as Prime Minister,” Mr Morrison insisted on elaborating yesterday.

Given Mr Joyce’s unsubtle hints pre-election he might stand for the Nationals leadership later as the “elected Deputy Prime Minister”, it was unlikely Mr McCormack would have countenanced rewarding his rival with a powerful job. Or any job.

“If there was a spill and the position’s vacant, I am the elected deputy prime minister of Australia, so I’d have no guilt at all in standing, but I don’t see that happening,” Mr Joyce told ABC radio in early March in what he later called a misstep.

And the McCormack Nationals’ strong election performance removed any frail, lingering momentum for a Joyce re-run.

Barnaby Joyce easily returned to his New England seat. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

Another walloping across the ears for Mr Joyce came obliquely with the appointment of Arthur Sinodinos as ambassador to Washington.

His departure will result in a casual vacancy for the Liberals to fill in the Senate. And the man likely to fill that vacancy could be Jim Molan, the Liberal Mr Joyce didn’t want helped win a spot in the Upper House.

Senator Molan was on the unwinnable fourth spot on the Coalition’s NSW Senate ticket, but fellow conservative supporters were urging strategic below-the-line voting to push him higher into a winning position.

If successful, that might have smothered the chances of the Nationals’ Senate candidate.

And two days before the election Mr Joyce said the moves to upgrade Senator Molan’s election chances could damage the Liberal/National Unity.

“Well we have an order, we have a process, and you’ve got to abide by the agreement,” Mr Joyce said.

“If you don’t abide by a key tenet of the agreement then it calls into question what is the strength of that agreement.”

Senator Jim Molan. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Morrison dodged a question on the possible Molan elevation, unconvincingly arguing he had to wait in the unlikely case the Sinodinos diplomatic appointment he had so breezily announced might not get royal assent.

“In the event that there would be a selection in New South Wales or Victoria, they would be matters for the New South Wales...division (of the Liberal Party,” he said, seemingly indicating it was out of his hands.

The Prime Minister also declined to directly address his election campaign insistence Melissa Price would remain Environment Minister.

Yesterday he moved her to Defence Industries — in charge of big projects in her home state of Western Australia — and invoked the old “new challenges” dodge.

“Melissa and I discussed her role, she asked to be given a new challenge and I was happy to give her one,” said the Prime Minister.

Melissa Price lost her job as Environment Minister. Picture: Gary Ramage

The jobs given to Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce to help keep them busy after last year’s leadership spill now no longer exist.

Mr Joyce will not keep his drought envoy role, while no one has replaced Mr Abbott as envoy to indigenous Australians.

Instead, Queensland MP Warren Entsch has been appointed special envoy to the Great Barrier Reef — the only envoy appointed.

“Warren has a passion across a whole range of issues in relation to the reef ... and he has a particular passion about oceans policy and the impact of plastics on our oceans,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday.

Mr Abbott lost his safe Liberal seat of Warringah last Saturday to independent Zali Steggall.

After the tumultuous spill in August last year, Mr Morrison faced calls from media commentators to return Mr Abbott and Mr Joyce to cabinet to stop them destabilising the government.

Instead he appointed them to the envoy roles, which came with no extra money or staff.

Queensland MP David Littleproud will look after drought in his cabinet role, while Ken Wyatt has been appointed indigenous Australians minister.

— With AAP