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PM ‘can’t wait to leave’ Australia, escape Joyce saga, says Shorten

Bill Shorten says he bets the PM “can’t wait to leave” Australia amid the ongoing Barnaby Joyce scandal.

Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann in the Senate chamber.
Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann in the Senate chamber.

Bill Shorten says he bets Malcolm Turnbull “can’t wait to leave” Australia as he flies out to the United States tonight amid the ongoing Barnaby Joyce scandal.

The Labor leader’s comments come after the soon-to-be acting prime minister Mathias Cormann said the government needed to move on from the saga surrounding the Deputy Prime Minister, who “clearly” doesn’t plan on going anywhere, despite calls yesterday from the West Australian branch of the National Party for Mr Joyce to resign.

Mr Shorten said there were more fault lines in the Coalition than you could shake a stick at, on Day 14 of the Barnaby Joyce crisis.

“Mr Turnbull’s flying off overseas. I bet he can’t wait to leave,” he said.

“He’s already put his hand up and said, ‘don’t blame me, I’m only the Prime Minister of Australia, how can I be expected to discipline my own ministers’.

“It’s Day 14, the Prime Minister hasn’t shown leadership. It’s Day 14, the Deputy Prime Minister’s shown no sense of responsibility. It’s Day 14 and the senior members of the government are fighting each other.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s Abbott lobbing bombs about immigration, Scott Morrison’s out there attacking Abbott, you’ve got Joyce who’s running his own race, he’s called his boss ‘inept’, no discipline there from Mr Turnbull.

“I tell you what, I bet you Mr Turnbull can’t wait until that door on the plane closes and he can just forget about Australia, forget about his own government for a while.”

Mr Shorten said he did not believer Australian’s cared about Mr Joyce’s private life, but people were concerned about possible conflicts of interest.

“I think that people will say, ‘what’s going on though about special jobs being created?’ They will go on and ask about how does a bloke on $420,000 a year need free rent from a rich property developer mate,” Mr Shorten said.

“It’s not the man’s private life which matters. It’s whether or not there’s been any use of public office for private gain.”

Mr Shorten said the West Australian branch of the National Party was right in calling for Mr Joyce to resign.

“I think the West Australian Nationals have just said what most Australians think,” he said.

“Barnaby, move on, son. It’s not working. You need to move on. The government is paralysed. You’ve made your boss look like a laughing stock because he can’t control you. It’s time just to move on.”

Barnaby ‘clearly not going anywhere’

When it was put to him that Mr Joyce was not going anywhere, Senator Cormann replied: “That is clearly what he is saying”.

“We just keep doing the job that we were elected to do, do the best we can to secure more jobs and higher wages,” he told Nine Network.

“We must move on. The country wants us to move on, we must move on, we need to focus on the things we were elected to do,” the soon-to-be acting prime minister said this morning.

“Our next priority is to get our business tax cuts through the Australian Senate so that Australian businesses can be globally competitive.

“We just keep doing the job that we were elected to do, do the best we can to secure more jobs and higher wages,” .

Mr Joyce is on personal leave this week amid ongoing questions about his future following revelations of his extramarital affair with his pregnant former staffer.

Senator Cormann said Mr Joyce was a “very senior and effective politician”, but acknowledged the impact his personal matters had had on his professional role.

“He’s a good friend and valued colleague. He’s had a tough couple of weeks,” Senator Cormann said. “He’s dealing with some deeply personal matters, some of which have spilled over into the professional and it’s been a bit of a distraction for the government obviously in recent times.

“Both for him personally, his family’s sake, and his new partner and also for the government we need to get to the other side of this as soon as we can.”

Also this morning, former prime minister Tony Abbott said the government would be weaker without Barnaby Joyce.

Mr Joyce yesterday dismissed a call to step down from WA Nationals leader Mia Davies, who said the scandal surround his affair with Vikki Campion was damaging the party’s brand in her state.

Mr Abbott cautioned against dumping Mr Joyce, saying he was a very accomplished politician.

“In the end it’s up to the National Party and Barnaby to decide what they should do, but yes I certainly think in terms of a very strong and very well known retail politician the government would be weaker without him,” Mr Abbott told Sky News.

Asked whether Prime Minister had made a mistake in “trying to shame Mr Joyce into quitting last week”, when Mr Turnbull accused Mr Joyce of a “shocking error of judgment” which he said “has appalled us all”, Mr Abbott said: “That’s a question that’s best directed elsewhere.”

Treasurer Scott Morrison reiterated that the issue of Mr Joyce’s leadership was a matter for the Nationals. “That’s what the Prime Minister has said. I’ve said what I have had to say on this topic. It is for the Nationals to determine,” he said.

WA Nationals state leader Mia Davies yesterday issued a statement saying the scandal surrounding Mr Joyce had become a distraction.

“Mr Joyce’s actions have caused pain for his family but it is the ongoing damage Mr Joyce is causing the Nationals organisation that is of greatest concern to me as WA leader,” Ms Davies said.

The WA branch of the party does not have any federal MPs and will play no role in any potential vote on the leadership, but it was second only to the NSW branch in political donations last financial year amid the state election, receiving $1.785 million.

Mr Joyce shot back in a statement, pointing out that WA didn’t have any federal MPs and that the eastern states, which had more “skin in the game”, supported him.

Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott in question time. Picture: Gary Ramage
Barnaby Joyce and Tony Abbott in question time. Picture: Gary Ramage

“I find it surprising that a federal issue has so much momentum in the west, when people in the east in the National Party have, in the majority, a different view,” Mr Joyce said.

Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh said the federal leadership was a matter for federal MPs, and the NSW Nationals issued a similar statement.

“Further commentary on this issue in the public domain is unhelpful,” the NSW branch said.

A spokeswoman for NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro, who was strongly rebuked by Mr Joyce last year after he called for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s resignation, said he supported his federal counterpart.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan said there was a “level of disappointment” about the situation, with party supporters split “50/50” on the issue.

Asked about Ms Davies’ statement, Senator Canavan said: “It’s a sentiment I’ve heard from lots of people ... (but) it’s obviously not 100 per cent in one direction.”

Mr Joyce’s NSW Nationals colleague Michael McCormack, who has been touted as a potential replacement, refused six times to explicitly back Mr Joyce’s leadership on Monday.

The party’s MPs are due to meet at a partyroom meeting on Monday, but senators will not necessarily be present due to Additional Senate Estimates.

Any debate over the leadership could only be brought on by a challenge or spill motion, which the entire partyroom would need to meet and vote on.

— With AAP

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/barnaby-joyce-tony-abbott-says-government-would-be-weaker-without-nats-leader/news-story/e1ac7c0799e00bdde4a6b0642151d50d