Barnaby Joyce the man to lead Nationals, says Doug Anthony

LONG-serving National Party leader Doug Anthony has tapped Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce as a future leader of the party.

FORMER deputy prime minister and long-serving Nationals leader Doug Anthony has tapped Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce as a future leader of the party.

“I think he’s got a lot of go in him,” Mr Anthony told The Weekend Australian. “He’s a man who is prepared to look at other ideas. He’s got energy.”

Mr Anthony said he was “impressed” with current leader Warren Truss and described the Coalition parties as working well together. But asked if Mr Joyce would make a good leader, Mr Anthony said: “I think he will. I think he (Mr Joyce) is learning a lot. When he first came in (to parliament) he made a few mistakes. I think having a few other people around to talk to and ­advise him, he’s getting wiser.”

Mr Anthony was speaking ahead of his 85th birthday next month and following his recent resignation from the board of John McEwen House, ending a formal association with the Party that began in the 1950s.

Mr Anthony served as a minister in six governments and as deputy prime minister to John Gorton, Billy McMahon and Malcolm Fraser. He praised Mr Fraser’s term as prime minister from 1975 to 1983 but expressed disappointment with some of his recent comments. “I think he was an outstanding prime minister,” Mr Anthony said. “I thought Malcolm during those years was very impressive. (But) he hasn’t presented himself as an ex-prime minister as well as he should have. He shouldn’t buy into the issues that half his party disagrees with.

“His party is the most important thing. You have got to look after it. I certainly did my best to look after the National Party … It is almost as if he wants to have a point of view just to be different to other people. I wish he wouldn’t do it. He is a friend and it’s not nice to have friends ­opposed to you.”

Mr Anthony offered support for the free-trade agreement with China, said the Nationals should keep alive the option of merging with the Liberals and reaffirmed his support for an Australian republic.

Mr Anthony, who led the ­Nationals from 1971 to 1984, also dismissed Clive Palmer’s bid to win country seats in state and federal parliaments. “Palmer has got attraction for people,” he said. “But I think we’re finding he’s not as reliable as he used to be … I think he’s run his race.”