Residency rule stalls Barnaby Joyce's choice

BARNABY Joyce's plan to prise a lower house seat from Tony Windsor hinges on the Queensland senator first overcoming the NSW Nationals' preselection rules.

Barnaby Joyce

BARNABY Joyce's plan to prise a lower house seat from independent MP Tony Windsor hinges on the Queensland senator first overcoming the NSW Nationals' preselection rules, which require him to live in NSW before making a bid for a local seat.

Senator Joyce yesterday told The Australian he had no intention of abandoning his Queensland Senate seat to make a bid for New England without securing preselection first.

"I would not be deserting one job to be starting another that I don't have yet," he said from Lennox Head on the NSW north coast.

The 90-member NSW Nationals' central council can under "exceptional circumstances" waive its rule that requires preselection candidates to have been NSW party members for 12 months. Only NSW residents can apply for membership. Senator Joyce played down suggestions the NSW Nationals preselection criteria would be a roadblock to his chances of making a run for the lower house seat.

"I am sure there are more complicated things that happen in life, but that is their (the NSW Nationals') call, it is their show," he said.

Mr Windsor, who holds New England with a comfortable margin of 21.6 per cent, said if Senator Joyce wanted to wrest the seat from him, he should immediately step down from the Senate and start campaigning.

"If he has given up on the people of Queensland . . . he has to justify his own actions to his so-called constituency," Mr Windsor said.

Senator Joyce said he did not expect an election to be called for a couple of years. What happened next was "a question for the people of New England and the NSW National Party".

He said he would have no qualms moving back to his family's farm, near Tamworth, in the seat of New England, if he was given preselection.

"Absolutely - it is not so much moving away but moving back," he said.

Senator Joyce hit out at Mr Windsor for being inconsistent, declaring the independent resigned from the NSW parliament only the month before the 2001 federal election, when he won the New England seat.

Mr Windsor declared he would welcome the political duel if Senator Joyce moved to challenge him.

"I am more than happy to compete for the seat," Mr Windsor said. "The National Party have taken the seat for granted for the last 80 years and it's good to see they are not taking it for granted any more."

Although he refused to rule out retiring after this term of parliament, Mr Windsor said: "If I am enjoying it and my health is good, then of course I'll stand again, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed politics as much."

NSW Nationals state director Ben Franklin said the party's constitution stated candidates seeking preselection had to be a member of the state branch of the party for at least 12 months, which required a candidate to live in the state. He said the party's central council had made exceptions in the past to the 12-month membership rule, allowing Bathurst mayor Paul Toole to seek preselection for the NSW seat just three months before the election.

Nationals sources were split yesterday on whether Senator Joyce should stand in New England or the southwestern Queensland seat of Maranoa in which he lived, which was still the senator's first preference.

Sources said some members hoped the sitting Nationals MP Bruce Scott would move aside to allow a "bloke who had leadership potential" to contest the safe seat.

Mr Scott has a comfortable buffer of 22.9 per cent in Maranoa.

Some Nationals sources said it would be a far less risky move for "an asset like Senator Joyce" to seek preselection in Maranoa than to take on New England.

Others Nationals sources said Senator Joyce was making the right move and would be more deserving of a leadership role if he won a high-profile seat back for the Nationals in a tight contest.

Julia Gillard yesterday seized on Senator Joyce's lower-house bid, declaring Tony Abbott should go to the next election telling Australians whether Senator Joyce would be his deputy prime minister.

"I think if that's Tony Abbott's plan for the future of the country, he should be crystal clear with Australians about it," the Prime Minister said.

The Opposition Leader said whether or not Senator Joyce ran in New England was a "matter for Barnaby".

"He's been a terrific contributor to the Coalition and to the front bench. He is a great politician," he said.