Federal election 2019: I should have been told in person says Joyce

Barnaby Joyce wishes he hadn’t found out on Twitter that he’d been dropped as drought envoy.

Barnaby Joyce says he’d have liked a phone call from the PM over his job. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

Welcome to PoliticsNow. Here’s a round -up of what’s made news in the wash up of the federal election today.

Richard Ferguson 10.05am: ‘I’d have expected a phone call’

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce says he wishes he had been informed personally that he had been dropped as the government’s drought envoy, instead of finding out via Twitter.

“I would have (expected a phone call), but I didn’t and that’s life” he told Sky News this morning.

“That is the role a leader has, they can make that call. But I think it is incumbent upon them to relay that to person to people, not to have them to find out via Twitter.

“Why it’s important is because you’ve got staff and you’ve got to ring people up. The first call I made when I did find out was to my staff and to say: ‘I’m really sorry about that, going to try and find you a job, you’re a good staff member, I’m sure there’s work out there, I’ll try put a good word out there in the respected places.”

Mr Joyce took on the role of drought envoy when Scott Morrison took the Prime Ministership last August.

Mr Joyce’s first statement on his dumping was last night on Twitter when he responded to a Sky News tweet on the matter: “Just found out from you guys then.”

Just found out from you guys then

— Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) May 26, 2019

Drought was elevated yesterday to a cabinet portfolio issue and taken on by new Water Resources Minister David Littleproud.

The Prime Minister had two special envoys in his first ministry — Mr Joyce and Tony Abbott on indigenous affairs. He only has Nationals MP Warren Entsh as a special envoy for the Great Barrier Reef.

.@The_Nationals MP @Barnaby_Joyce after being dropped as drought envoy: If we take our focus off this, people will feel truly let down and we can't do that. We'll pay the price for it.

MORE: https://t.co/KDxRjOdQJg #FirstEdition #auspol pic.twitter.com/27KloEQzxM

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) May 26, 2019

Richard Ferguson 8.55am: Climate/energy combo ‘makes sense’

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says Scott Morrison’s decision to combine energy and emissions reduction in cabinet “makes a lot of sense” and the government is committed to tackling climate change in a way that is “economically sensible.”

“There’s policy alignment so it makes a lot of sense and Snowy 2.0 is an central part of our plan to meet our reduction target,” Senator Cormann told Sky News.

“We are, and always have been, committed to effective action on climate change. We are committed to effective action on climate change in a way that is economically sensible.

“Of course we can continue to develop our key export markets ... but we are committed to meeting our emissions reduction targets signed onto in Paris and we have a plan to meet those climate solutions package.”

Angus Taylor will add emissions reduction to his portfolio, while Sussan Ley will return to cabinet in a stripped-back environment role.

Richard Ferguson 8.00am: ‘We’ll work with PNG leadership’

Foreign Minister Marise Payne says she will work with whoever leads Papua New Guinea after the resignation of PNG prime minister Peter O’Neill.

“We have a long term commitment to strengthening our Australia-PNG partnership and Prime Minister O’Neill has been absolutely pivotal to that,” she told ABC radio this morning.

“Obviously these are matters for the PNG parliament and political parties, and we will work with the leadership as it is determined by them.

“And I’m sure that no matter who that is, that will be a continuing approach as we have had in recent years.”

Mr O’Neill stepped down ahead of a fresh push by ­opponents to throw him out of ­office, handing the leadership to former ally Sir Julius Chan, who has in the past been a strident ­critic of Australia.

Senator Payne said she would also deal with PNG opposition politicians who want offshore processing facilities on Manus Island dismantled and refugees removed from their territory.

“We will obviously deal with those issues as they arise, and I think it is premature to speculate,” she said.

“As we’ve seen in recent weeks, PNG politics has been historically, and is clearly currently, dynamic.”

What’s making news:

Scott Morrison will move rapidly to mark the Pacific as his top ­strategic priority, making an early trip to the Solomon Islands next week to counter growing Chinese influence over Australia’s regional neighbours.

Scott Morrison has drawn sharp new priorities for his government by elevating the National Dis­ability Insurance Scheme into cabinet as a stand-alone ministry, reintegrating the climate and ­energy portfolios and creating a federal agency to improve public service delivery.

Bill Shorten is set to be a front­bencher in Anthony Albanese’s team while Queensland MP Jim Chalmers is firming as Labor’s Treasury spokesman.

The Prime Minister has appointed former finance min­ister Arthur Sinodinos as the Australian ambassador in Washington.

Stuart Robert has been elevated into cabinet and will oversee the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Simon Benson writes: A fundamental shift in the power balance of the Liberal Party is under way.

Nick Cater writes: There was nothing wrong with the polls, apparently. It was the voters who got it wrong. Labor would have won by a landslide if the lard-headed nincom­poops had paid attention. Instead, they had “sent a message” to the Labor Party, Anthony Albanese told the ABC’s 7.30 host Leigh Sales last week. The message­ was that “we haven’t sold the message well enough”.