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‘Australian politics is once again colourful’: Readers respond to Barnaby’s return

By Orietta Guerrera

June 24, 2021 — 8.00pm

Parliament’s final sitting week before winter recess kicked off with the return of Barnaby Joyce as leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister. While the defeated Michael McCormack said “I’ve done my very best”, Joyce was also reflective: “I hope I come back a better person”. Some readers were excited to see his return after three years on the backbench, others were appalled or left scratching their heads.

Barnaby Joyce, having returned as Nationals leader and deputy Prime Minsiter, pictured in question time this week.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Impatiens: “Austrayans, all, let us re-Joyce!!!”

KS: “A positive move. There are few politicians left who are prepared to swim against the tide if they need to. Barnaby is one of them - disaffected conservatives will flock back - hence the onslaught of ridicule from people who would never vote for him anyway.”

WhatReallyMatters: “Ah good. Barnaby Joyce, that shining beacon of family values. Appointed as a Deputy PM. What an international embarrassment.”

Swing Voter: “Seriously??!! I am speechless & disgusted.”

Peter Turvey: “So, how does a bloke, who has been generally considered socially unfit to lead, for the past 3 years, suddenly get catapulted into the position of deputy PM on the basis of a coup by a small bunch of politicians jockeying for position and favour? Doesn’t sound very democratic to me.”

Pjma42: “Things must be desperate in the Nationals if they have to recycle leaders.”

Gds Gds: “‘I hope I come back a better person’. Surely that is, entirely, up to Barnaby and, frankly, he needs to.”

Redback: “A leopard doesn’t change its spots.”

Here: “The end of the Nationals, and the LNP… credibility zero. John Anderson should come back.”

DAVID REID: “Heaven help Australia! Despite a lifetime of Coalition voting, I could never vote for the Coalition with Barnaby as deputy leader!!”

Mr Rufus: “Australian politics is once again colourful. Now, if Rudd could make a comeback, it would be even more colourful.”

Collector of Teapots: “It will give our satirists a bit more to work with. McCormack was only ever a placeholder and contributed too little to really make good fun of him.”

johnS: “Barnaby’s new role may end up splitting the government on climate policy, this can only help the numbers to erase this government.”

Freddy M: “Surely farmers are on the front line of climate change. The National’s position on climate change simply cannot reflect the views of farmers - it beggars belief - so exactly who do these guys represent?”

The Numbers Just Don’t Add Up: “Watch our water disappear again.”

SC: “I am really happy that Barnaby is getting back his Deputy PM position. He will be able to double his salary to some A$400K and in a position to properly look after both his young family and the one from his first marriage. Otherwise, money would be very tight on a basic MP salary of A$200K to support two families. I suspect that is his prime motive to wrest back the NP leader position.“

Morrison takes side trip to explore family history

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s side trip to the small village St Keverne to explore his convict family roots while attending the G7 in Cornwall had some readers lamenting that the prime minister was acting above the rules while others dismissed the outcry.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Cornwall for the G7 summit.Credit: AP

J B: “It’s disappointing to see the PM adhere to a different set of standards than what he imposes on the rest of the population. I’m unable to travel overseas to my home in the UK to see my ageing parents because of the travel ban, but he is permitted to take a side-trip to ‘explore’ his heritage there? What a poor message this sends to us taxpayers.”

atrejka: “Rules for thee but not for me......I have not seen my elderly parents in Europe for two years. ... I simply find the PM’s behaviour quite unbelievable.”

JReeP: “He went to the place where his fifth great-grandfather was born. In other words, he attended the birthplace of 1 of 128 very distant and very dead grandparents from that generation. THAT was important, whereas rolling out the vaccine, protecting women in the workplace, slowing climate change, treating asylum seekers humanely, and penalising parliamentary sex pests are demonstrably not.”

Mick: “Wouldn’t it be more prudent for Scott Morrison to utilise his staff to fix the disaster that is the vaccine rollout and sort out some remote quarantine centres to replace the hotel quarantine joke that is obviously not working rather than have them at taxpayers expense research and plan a family history trip?”

Antigone: “I can understand the exceptional circumstances justifying travel to meet with the G7. However, the trip should have been kept to a minimal number of Australian staff and should have been limited strictly to G7 activities. The PM has again failed to take the opportunity to demonstrate his leadership skills.”

Malcolm: “He knows it wouldn’t pass the pub test, so kept his family history visit a secret. So tired of rules for them and rules for us. Shameful really.”

Gujju2: “ScoMo has form in keeping his overseas trips a ‘Secret’ a la Hawaii. Remember ‘I do not hold a hose, mate’. At least on this trip he did not wrangle for an invitation to take his Church person also.“

janpeter3: “It wasn’t secret, he was officially welcomed, photos were taken and published and he spoke about it. Nothing secret here.”

Mr Rufus: “So, Scotty was in Cornwall for the G7, and decided to visit a village in Cornwall. Is this really news?”

Jacko: “Get over it. It’s not such a big deal. He’s entitled to a bit of self-interest as an aside while on business O/S. And i’m not a Morrison supporter; rather a reasonable person.”

Be Real: “The PM has a private life like every commenter on here. Seems from observation he works nearly every day at his job (most on here would work 5 days max, maybe some don’t work at all) so the average Aussie is going to extend a bit of grace on this one. Sorry folks. Storm in a teacup, once again.”

41 Mclaren: “It’s what sane, sensible and rational people often do on big trips (or even littluns) have a bit of a trip on the side, call it work/life balance, not even an ethical side to it, just a reasonable thing to do.

Yes, Sir Mini Stir: “Whenever I chose to mix personal business in my job, my pay would be docked.
Fellow Australians, who pay Scotty’s wage, should we not dock his pay for those number of hours while attending to his personal business? Or perhaps we should we just wait for him to reappear for a ‘Show and Tell’ episode.
That should legitimise everything...“

grkpieman: “I would hope that this part of his jaunt is NOT being footed by my taxes.”

Financial regrets, I’ve had a few...

Jessica Irvine celebrated her 40th birthday this month and after spending time reflecting on what she would tell her 20-year-old self about money, the senior economics writer had some advice to share: “40 things I wish I knew about money before turning 40.” Many readers welcomed the tips, with some chiming in with their own.

This is 40! Senior economics writer Jessica Irvine ushered in a new decade this month, and shared some financial advice she wished she’d had when she was 20.Credit: Jessica Irvine

Reciprocity: “Great Stuff Jess. Thank you so much. I have 4 degrees, a diploma and a fellowship but my financial smarts are not good. So grateful to you.”

Old lefty: “Coming from a different generation the one thing I wish I learnt was there are 2 debts types good and bad, good home loan bad credit card.”

Pussycat: “The money I save buying second-hand I spend on holidays! I buy second-hand furniture and clothes and save heaps!! One of my values is experiences with my loved ones and buying second-hand allows me to have lots of experiences. But do I love a new luxury vehicle? Yes I do! Know what you are prepared to go without out and know what you aren’t.”

termite: “If you want to save for a home deposit, start young, while you’re still living with your parents. Leaving it until you’re married with 2 kids makes it much, much harder.”

kevlon: “I just turned 60 and everything you said I agree with. I wish I’d done some of them.”

Nothing to see here.: “Firstly happy birthday, I trust you had a great day!!! The one comment I would add is understand the effect of compounding and longevity in the market.”

MBPC: “Add ‘buy once, buy well’ to this great list. It’s something I learnt later in life and it has paid off handsomely, when applied to furniture, homewares and clothing especially.”

Phil: “I wish I’d known that, despite house prices being ridiculous and unsustainable, both sides of govt would help to make them more ridiculous for a couple of decades. Unfortunately for current young people, that just can’t go on forever - your generation will never make money as easily as previous generations have managed to, no matter what you do.”

Rolly Basslet: “‘what I would tell my 20-year-old self about money, if I could.’ 41: Buy an ounce of gold each pay day. 2001 AUD533.00...2021 AUD2,362.00.”

Tantrum: “If purchasing in store from a small business, don’t ask for a discount, smile or not. It’s rude and insulting. Small business has it hard enough. Go for your life at Bunnings or whatever.”

waxstein: “Don’t shop at Aldi. Avoid any food made in certain overseas countries - no matter what outlet. Forget investing in Education - Education is just pieces of paper. Invest in broad knowledge - broad knowledge leads to wisdom.”

RM: “Point one should always be, don’t forget to have fun along the way. Wasting money from time to time is not the end of the world.”

C: “Invest in quality shares, either directly or via ETFs, as young as possible. The power of compounding returns over decades is one of the wonders of the universe. Do the maths on what an ASX or S&P500 index investment 40 or 50 years ago is worth now despite all the various corrections and crashes.”

Eco101: “Good article. My fav since Jessica moved a bit more towards commenting on personal wealth. One item I don’t agree on - I think you DO need at least $1 million to retire on. And I’d add that you could shoot for an investment property after you have your first home underway (I know it’s hard to get the first but when I was younger I could’ve easily got a second but was talked out of it).”

Chad: “It’s telling that you suggest to get the cheapest private health insurance to avoid the Medicare levy surcharge. Sounds like you are saying there’s no real benefit in buying private health insurance other than to avoid a tax. As a holder of top private cover I still wonder if it is worth it.”

Greg Madden: “Jess, you mentioned the idea that your ability to earn an income is your greatest asset, so why wouldn’t you recommend insuring it? I never met anyone who could maintain their lifestyle for longer than 3 months without an income.”

Miss Riverina: “What I know for certain about $$ before dying. NO POINT getting tight and obsessing about it.”

Online readers of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age made 51,385 comments on 564 stories in the past week.

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