Sidelined Barnaby Joyce issues election warnings

Joyce has urged the Coalition to reject climate virtue, beware of being ‘inauthentic by trying to win every vote’ and avoid mimicking Climate 200-backed teal independents.

New England MP Barnaby Joyce. Picture: Tom Parrish

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Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce has urged the Liberals and Nationals to reject climate virtue, beware being “inauthentic by trying to win every vote” and avoid mimicking Climate 200-backed teal independents or treating them with kid gloves.

Amid growing internal Coalition concerns about the chances of a Labor-Greens-teals minority government, the former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, who has been sidelined by his own party from campaigning outside his electorate, cautioned that trying to win every vote was a mistake.

The New England MP, who trounced Climate 200 advisory council member Tony Windsor in the 2016 election, said “if in a campaign you have the teals determining the rules of political engagement and the subjects for debate, they will win”.

“The whole nature of politics today means it is long gone that it is only a two-horse race but you can only ride the horse you are on: that is, stick to your own game plan and what you know works for the issues of those who vote,” Mr Joyce said. “Don’t try and win every vote or you will sound completely inauthentic.”

Liberal and Nationals MPs across the country are facing challenges from independent candidates backed by Simon Holmes a Court’s cashed-up ­Climate 200 group, which is hoping its endorsed candidates pick up regional seats including Cowper, Wannon and Calare. Making it more difficult for the Coalition, incumbent Calare MP Andrew Gee is also running as an independent after quitting the Nationals over the Indigenous voice.

Despite Coalition MPs being under threat, the opposition veterans’ affairs spokesman has been effectively banned from campaigning in at-risk seats under a new Nationals rule requiring opposition frontbenchers to get permission to travel to other electorates from party leader David Littleproud, who ousted Mr Joyce immediately following the 2022 election.

Some in Coalition ranks believe Mr Joyce would be a campaign asset in target electorates that could be won or lost by hundreds of votes, including Calare and Cowper, which neighbour Mr Joyce’s New England. Under Mr Joyce’s leadership, the Nationals gained a seat at the 2016 election and didn’t go backwards in 2022.

With a rump of Nationals MPs including Mr Joyce believing that targets of net-zero emissions by 2050 adopted by Labor and the Coalition are untenable, the 57-year-old lamented “catastrophic” energy price impacts for households and businesses.

Mr Joyce, who as Nationals leader struck a multi-billion dollar net-zero deal with Scott Morrison but has since attacked renewable energy projects, transmission lines and wind farms, said: “The Australian people have now come to the understanding that climate virtue comes at a price and it is the price that is paid for intermittent electricity ­euphemistically termed renewables. The cost of living is catastrophic for so many Australians and the pot that so much of that pain grows from is energy prices. It is perplexing, therefore that Chris Bowen wants our nation to be afflicted with 82 per cent _intermittent power by 2030. If ­revenge is a dish best served cold, paradoxically, cold reality comes out red hot.

“Even the minister Penny Sharpe from the NSW Labor Left has a policy of paying to keep coal-fired power stations working. Regardless of politics physics is going to win this debate.”

After former Hinkler MP Keith Pitt quit politics in December, delivering a stinging rebuke of Mr Littleproud on the way out, other Nationals MPs including Matt Canavan and Colin Boyce endorsed Mr Pitt’s criticism of the party’s net-zero commitment.

While Peter Dutton has announced his long-term zero-emissions nuclear policy, the Coalition is yet to outline how the plan will help drive down soaring energy prices or take the edge off power bills in the near-term.

Reflecting on his 2016 election victory over Mr Windsor, who Mr Joyce dubbed the “first teal”, the Nationals frontbencher described Climate 200-backed independent MPs and candidates as being “excellent at using faux virtue to contrive a code which only they have the possible political answer for”. “You cannot beat Labor by being Labor nor a teal by being teal. The political debate is lost if enlightened views hold prevalence over facts of the lived experience.”

Asked if he was ready to join the hustings if Mr Littleproud asked him, Mr Joyce said “I am very happy campaigning in New England. It is my home and the people I love and serve … I will leave organisational issues of the party up to its organisation”.