Few politicians are good at self- reflection. For a profession that attracts outsized egos and chronic narcissism, Barnaby Joyce could not be better suited. Most MPs try to cloak their ambition and control their vanity but Joyce’s delusions of grandeur cannot be tamed. It threatens Michael McCormack’s leadership of the Nationals and the stability and cohesion of the Coalition government. As the Nationals mark a century as a party, they are gripped by bickering over leadership, strategy and policy.
McCormack may be a bland and uninspiring leader but Joyce must be the most self- centred and treacherous. His leadership challenge was pure megalomania. Now he is holding the government hostage by threatening to vote against legislation.
Scott Morrison does not want Joyce to return as deputy prime minister. The view among Liberals is that Joyce is a self-serving and destructive politician who is not a team player and lacks the discipline to be an effective minister. The view among many Nationals is that Joyce is toxic in parts of rural and regional Australia given he trashed the party’s conservative brand when his personal life imploded two years back.
Yet Joyce challenged McCormack for the leadership of the Nationals a fortnight ago. Suggestions the vote was as close as 11-10 have been promulgated by the Joyce camp but are likely exaggerated. The challenger drew blood, damaged the leader and destabilised the party. But he did not succeed. He who wields the knife never wears the crown. Just ask Peter Dutton.
It was the first time a Nationals leader has faced a leadership challenge mid-term in 30-plus years. In May 1989, Ian Sinclair was challenged and defeated in a party room coup. Charles Blunt became leader and the party paid a heavy price by losing a swag of seats at the 1990 election.
The Nationals have a long history of eschewing leadership turmoil and favouring orderly transitions.
Joyce has no respect for this tradition. He undercut the Prime Minister’s pledge to voters ahead of last year’s election that disunity and leadership churn in the government was left in the past. Morrison promised stable government. He said the government had learned after felling two prime ministers.
Joyce’s vaulting ambition continues to be a huge distraction for the government. However, he now says he accepts the outcome of the leadership spill and McCormack is safe from further challenge. “We have a McCormack-Morrison government and we will be going to the election as the McCormack-Morrison government,” he said. But he remains a lightning rod for dissent and will continue to destabilise McCormack’s leadership.
Llew O’Brien’s election to the deputy speakership was an act of gross disloyalty by a rump of Nationals MPs. They defied both McCormack and Morrison. O’Brien did essentially the same thing Peter Slipper did in 2010 by accepting Labor votes to become deputy Speaker. (Slipper became Speaker the following year.) O’Brien was the mover of the spill motion against McCormack.
It is madness that any Nationals MPs thought Joyce should return to the leadership and become deputy prime minister. Just six weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, a sweaty, red-faced Joyce posted a video to Twitter ranting about government. “I just don’t want the government any more in my life,” he said. “I am sick of the government being in my life.”
Yet he wanted to be a cabinet minister and deputy prime minister. Go figure.
Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/QGYPv51pTN
— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) December 24, 2019
In Joyce’s tell-all memoir, Weatherboard & Iron, he laid bare the extent of his duplicity. He acknowledged deceiving voters about the state of his marriage ahead of the New England by-election in December 2017, defending his action as just part of the “game” of politics. He refused to talk about any of this until he reportedly was paid $150,000 by the Seven Network. Then he wrote about it in the book that presumably boosted the otherwise modest sales.
He did not tell Malcolm Turnbull about his relationship with staff member Vikki Campion, with whom he subsequently fathered two children. As the scandal dragged on and damaged the Turnbull government, Joyce refused to resign as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister. Yet in his book he conceded that he knew he would have to resign eventually. He put himself before his party and the government.
While Joyce is not the answer for the Nationals, McCormack’s leadership looks terminal. McCormack had never served in cabinet before becoming deputy prime minister — a position he is entitled to because a dozen or so MPs made him their leader.
It is a fantasy to think he can suddenly become a stronger, more forceful, cut-through leader. His integrity — something Joyce utterly lacks — is not enough. McCormack and Joyce pale in comparison to other Nationals leaders such as Arthur Fadden, John McEwen, Doug Anthony, Tim Fischer and John Anderson who were huge figures in previous Coalition governments and had credibility, respect and authority. The party looks like a shadow of what it was and is damaging the government. This is further underscored by Bridget McKenzie’s sports grants scandal.
That is why the Nationals should move beyond McCormack and Joyce to a new generation of leadership. Deputy leader David Littleproud looks as if he could be best placed to become the party’s 15th leader, drawing enough support from both the McCormack and Joyce camps. Darren Chester would make an ideal deputy.
There is no better way to mark 100 years than with a new leadership team.
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