Barnaby doing it tough on $280,000 a year

Barnaby Joyce, struggling to get by on his parliamentary wage, is on a $280,000 annual package.

‘I have to kill my own sheep’: Barnaby Joyce on the government backbenches in Parliament House, Canberra, yesterday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Barnaby Joyce, who yesterday declared he was struggling to get by on his parliamentary wage, is on a $280,000 package with taxpayer-funded car and telephone.

The former deputy prime minister, whose partner, Vikki Campion, last year pocketed $150,000 for a TV interview, has come under fire for linking his circumstances with people on Newstart, which is as low as $40 a day.

Mr Joyce told The Courier-Mail the pay cut he received after losing the deputy prime ministership and the costs associated with his marriage breakdown had forced him to turn off the heating at night and kill his own sheep rather than buy meat from the butcher. “It’s not that I’m not getting money, it’s just that it’s spread so thin,” he said.

The member for New England, who is calling for the rate of New­start to increase, earns a base wage of $211,250 and receives an extra $23,237 for being the chairman of the parliamentary committee on industry, innovation, science and resources.

He pockets an electorate allowance of $46,000 a year, paid ­directly into his bank account.

It is supposed to cover the costs of travelling in his electorate for the year, but Mr Joyce is able to keep money he does not spend and the payment is not audited.

Earlier this month, Mr Joyce defended keeping the unused electoral allowance because “if I went back as an accountant, I would be paid more”. He was forced to re­organise his finances after it was revealed he was paying rent on his Armidale home from an account set up to manage his parliamentary electoral allowance.

In the first three months of the year, the taxpayer forked out $12,000 for the lease and fuel costs of his private car and $300 for his home telephone.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson described Mr Joyce’s comments as “ridiculous and ­stupid”.

“What a ridiculous, stupid way to explain himself. And he is saying (with the) Newstart allowance people need a helping hand, which I’ve been saying for some time now,” Senator Hanson said.

Mr Joyce responded yesterday by declaring he was “far from skint” and on a “very good wage”.

He said he was merely showing empathy for people doing it tough because of his changed circumstances, declaring he was not trying to garner sympathy.

“Of course circumstances of my own fault means it is spread thin, and of course I am working on a very good salary (but it is hard to make) ends meet when you are supporting basically two families,” Mr Joyce said.

“God knows how someone on $280 a week ever gets by. I don’t know how they do it.”

Mr Joyce lost the deputy prime ministership last year after it was revealed he was having a baby with former staffer Ms Campion.

According to his register of interests, Mr Joyce owns cattle, sheep and crops and two properties, although his assets are being carved up in the separation with his wife, Natalie.

Among gifts received in the last parliament was six months’ free rent at a property in his electorate, where he lived with Ms Campion.