Joyce lets rip at ALP, GetUp ‘clowns’

Barnaby Joyce has retained his seat of New England but has let rip during live a TV cross.

Barnaby Joyce has retained his seat of New England. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has declared “sucked in with a sucker punch” to GetUp for its failed bid to help Rob Oakeshott win the seat of Cowper.

MORE : Federal Election 2019 Results

“Oakeshott, thank you for turning up. Thank you for your contribution. The big shout out goes to GetUp!,” said Mr Joyce, who has comfortably retained his seat of New England.

“All the money wasted, congratulations ...sucked in with a sucker punch.”

Independent candidate Mr Oakeshott tonight admitted his chances of winning the tight contest for Cowper, on the NSW mid-north coast, may have “blown up” as a result of a glitch in his how-to-vote card.

Mr Oakeshott, who is challenging the Nationals for the seat, admitted on the Seven Network tonight that the card may produce informal votes because some voters may think they have to put asterisks in all the boxes except the one for him, rather than number them in order of their preferences.

.@Barnaby_Joyce retains his seat, "In this area as well, people are talking about their power prices. They want to know how they can get dignity in their lives by being able to turn on their fridge, the toaster." #AusVotes2019 #Auspol pic.twitter.com/JPcpLPQwNn

— ABC News (@abcnews) May 18, 2019

For contributing to Tony Abbott’s loss of Warringah to independent Zali Steggall, Mr Joyce labelled GetUp “clowns”.

“Tony Abbott is going to be an incredible loss to our parliament,” he said.

“I have great respect for Tony, Margie, his girls and the work they’ve done.

“What I could say to the people who put all those resources into it: You went after one bloke. You went after him.

“Whilst going after him, you forgot about the other seats you might have won, you clowns.”

Mr Abbott has conceded defeat, but predicted that the Coalition will win government.”

He also lashed Labor for “abandoning” blue collar workers and putting in so little effort in the regions.

“(Labor) have abandoned Barcaldine and the Tree of Knowledge, they’ve wandered down and got themselves a kaftan and incense sticks, hanging around in the middle of Sydney,” he said.