Barnaby Joyce attacks Tony Windsor over Palmer links

Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has launched a pre-emptive assault over Tony Windsor’s links to MP Clive Palmer.

Barnaby Joyce also criticised Mr Windsor for announcing his intentions to the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, rather than to local reporters in New England.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has launched a pre-emptive assault over Tony Windsor’s links to a local coalmine and embattled businessman MP Clive Palmer.

Mr Windsor has announced he will challenge Barnaby Joyce for the seat of New England, quashing speculation he would seek a berth in the Senate.

Mr Joyce said his telephone was “ringing off the hook” with support for his work as the MP for New England.

“I think overwhelmingly people see Mr Windsor’s political journey as one where he started as an independent but then ended up as a member of the Labor-Greens-independent alliance,” he told ABC radio.

“We had a Green-Labor-independent alliance before. You will have a Green-Labor-independent alliance again.”

Amid claims that Mr Joyce had failed to protest the Shenhua Watermark coalmine on the Liverpool Plains, the Nationals leader insisted he did “not believe that you should have mining on prime agricultural land”.

“There is no mine at Shenhua, there is no mine at BHP Caroona, there is only one mine there and it’s at Werris Creek and … that was the country that obviously Mr Windsor and his family owned,” he said.

“Please don’t tell that the person … whose family made a large financial gain from commercial negotiations with regards to mines is the person who’s going to protect you from another one.”

Mr Joyce, asked about his close friendship with mining magnate Gina Rinehart, accused Mr Windsor of associating with Clive Palmer.

“Mr Windsor’s quite happy parading Clive Palmer up and down Peel Street (in Tamworth), showing that he was Mr Windsor’s backer.”

Mr Joyce also criticised Mr Windsor for announcing his intentions to the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, rather than to local reporters in New England.

“My phone’s been ringing off its hook with people saying that they’re backing the job that we’re doing in the New England,” he said.

Following the redrawing of electoral boundaries, the proposed Shenhua Watermark coal mine is no longer within the New England electorate, but is in the neighbouring seat of Parkes.

Met @CliveFPalmer for dinner in Glen Innes, discussed how more respect on both sides would make a more United oz pic.twitter.com/vJrPYcm3Pn

— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) April 30, 2013

Mr Joyce also criticised Mr Windsor for announcing his intentions to the press gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, rather than to local reporters in New England.

“My phone’s been ringing off its hook with people saying that they’re backing the job that we’re doing in the New England,” he said.

An automated poll conducted in January found 32.2 per cent primary support for Mr Windsor, compared with 39.5 per cent for Mr Joyce — down from 54 per cent at the 2013 election. Preferences from Labor and the Greens could push Mr Windsor over the line.

Mr Joyce dismissed the poll, which he said was commissioned by the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union.

“I can tell you as a rough rule of politics: do not rely on robo-calls from the far left wing as an indicator of who’s going to vote for whom,” he said.