Barnaby Joyce affair: Nationals faithful turn on one of their own

It saddens lifelong Nationals voter Judy Dwyer to say it, but it’s time for Barnaby Joyce to quit as Deputy Prime Minister.

Swinging voter Lyn Cammack, with Nationals backers Vic Finch and Judy Dwyer at Long Flat, in Queensland’s Wide Bay, yesterday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

It saddens lifelong Nationals voter Judy Dwyer to say it, but it’s time for Barnaby Joyce to quit as Deputy Prime Minister.

Deep in Nationals heartland near Gympie, in rural southeast Queensland 160km north of Brisbane, Ms Dwyer shakes her head at the scandal engulfing Mr Joyce, the party’s leader and the man long-hailed as a voice for the bush.

“He should give it a rest and have time off from the job, and stand down,” Ms Dwyer told The Australian as she left her regular Sunday afternoon dance lesson for seniors at the historic Long Flat Hall in the Nationals-held federal electorate of Wide Bay.

“He’s doing the wrong thing at the moment and I am definitely disappointed in him.”

That sentiment is writ large across Australia, according to today’s Newspoll. Overall, 65 per cent of those polled want him to relinquish the leadership of the Nationals, but it’s the voter breakdown that paints the most devastating picture for Mr Joyce.

Tellingly, 58 per cent of ­Coalition voters, and 56 per cent of One Nation voters, want him to stand down as leader. And in a dangerously grim portent for the prospects of the Coalition at the next election, voters in Queensland (which is home to seven of the ­nation’s 16 most marginal lower house seats) are the most likely to prefer that he steps down and leaves parliament immediately.

In a clear indication of conservative voters’ disgust, 33 per cent of One Nation supporters — whose preferences will be crucial at the next election — want him to leave parliament straight away.

Furthermore, Mr Joyce — for so long celebrated as the Coalition’s best “retail politician” in the bush — is even more on the nose in the regions (67 per cent of country voters no longer want him as Deputy Prime Minister) than he is in the capital cities (64 per cent), according to an analysis of the Newspoll data.

The Nationals partyroom is deeply divided over the crisis triggered by Mr Joyce’s affair with former staffer and mother of his unborn child, Vikki Campion.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce with his new partner Vikki Campion.

But Liberal MPs were also privately scathing of Malcolm Turnbull’s handling of the affair after the Prime Minister urged Mr Joyce to “consider his own position” on Thursday before holding an emergency meeting in Sydney on Saturday to smooth over differences with the Nationals leader.

“Is there a crisis on Earth Turnbull couldn’t make worse?” one Liberal MP said. “Barnaby’s got to go or he’ll take us all down.”

Both leaders used the Saturday meeting to put the last few days behind them and re-establish an effective working relationship, although Mr Turnbull made clear he was not walking away from his criticism of the Nationals leader.

“There’s nothing to apologise for,” Mr Turnbull said yesterday. “It was a frank discussion between the leaders of our two Coalition parties who’ve been working together through our predecessor parties for 95 years.

“It’s the most enduring political alliance in Australian history and it will continue.”

The Australian understands Mr Joyce has no intention of standing down and believes he can ride out the storm. On Friday Mr Joyce claimed he had the support of his Nationals colleagues and urged the Prime Minister not to make “implied comments about the leadership of the National party”.

While some Nationals MPs are reviving a push to oust Mr Joyce as leader, they do not have the numbers to force him to stand down. A number of Nationals MPs also pointed to the Saturday meeting between Mr Joyce and Mr Turnbull as evidence both leaders had made their peace.

Nationals senator and Resources Minister Matt Canavan told The Australian: “I’m confident that our two parties and our two leaders will continue to have a functioning and workable professional relationship.”

Back at Long Flat Hall, the prevailing mood was that Mr Joyce was the architect of the political mess, and should take responsibility for it. After years of admiring Mr Joyce’s work in regional Australia, his self-professed family values and his apparent commitment to his wife and children, Ms Dwyer said the revelations relating to his relationship with Ms Campion were “disgraceful”.

“It’s just a shame, and he’s only got himself into this predicament,” she said.