One Nation won’t contest Joyce’s New England seat

One Nation will not be contesting the New England by-election, saying Barnaby Joyce has had “a little bit of luck” go his way.

Barnaby Joyce on the campaign trail at the Tamworth Saleyards in the New England region today. Picture: Peter Lorimer

Pauline Hanson says her One Nation party will not be fielding a candidate in the New England by-election.

The announcement, made via Twitter virtually gives Barnaby Joyce a clear run at regaining his seat, which was declared vacant following Friday’s High Court ruling that he was disqualified from federal parliament due to his dual Australian-New Zealand citizenship.

It comes after Tony Windsor and the Shooters Fishers and Farmers party announced they would not contest the seat.

Senator Hanson said Mr Joyce had “a little bit of luck” go his way.

One Nation, New England by-election announcement. -PH #auspol pic.twitter.com/Wd6ODLTSUU

— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) October 30, 2017

“I can confirm that One Nation will not be contesting the New England by-election,” Senator Hanson said in a statement.

“This is because Annastacia Palaszczuk has done a backflip, breaking her promise to the people of Queensland to see out a full term, and called a snap election.

“While One nation is a major threat to the tired old parties and I would have loved to have seen a One Nation candidate run, it would have been unfair to our hardworking Queensland candidates to have the party become distracted by the New England sideshow.”

Shooters Fishers and Farmers give Joyce a clear shot

The Shooters Fishers and Farmers party will not contest the seat of New England against Barnaby Joyce, further paving the way for a likely comfortable victory for Mr Joyce on December 2.

Shooters party state director Filip Despotoski confirmed via text message this morning that the party would not be running in the seat.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party logo

Mr Despotoski had said on Friday whether the party ran would depend on whether it could attract a “credible candidate”.

A statement from the Shooters today said they had not prepared to field a candidate for New England because they had believed “just like the rest of Australia” Mr Joyce when he said he was not ineligible on the basis of his citizenship.”

The decision by the Shooters not to run, after the former independent member for the seat Tony Windsor announced on Friday afternoon he would not be contesting, is a boost for Mr Joyce and the Nationals.

The Shooters won the NSW state seat of Orange from the Nationals last November by 50 votes in a by-election and came within three points of beating the Nationals in the seat of Murray in a by-election last month after the resignation of former NSW education minister Adrian Piccoli.

One Nation has yet to comment on whether it will run in New England and it remains to be seen whether any sort of credible independent threat will emerge.

Mr Joyce won the seat with 52 per cent of the primary vote at last year’s federal election and has been polling at 58 in internal Nationals polling in the seat in recent weeks.

In the Shooters’ statement today NSW MLC Robert Brown said: “Just like the rest of Australia, we believed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce when they stood in parliament hand on heart, saying that Mr Joyce was not ineligible on the basis of his citizenship.

“As such, we have not made preparations to field a candidate in the New England by-election.

“We just completed three by-elections in rural New South Wales in the last year where we had record swings towards us after contesting Lower House electorates for the first time.

“It is clear that rural people believe that the National Party has grown arrogant and lazy as the lap-dog of the Liberal Party.

“After the National Party’s behaviour in the Cootamundra and Murray by-elections, we call on Barnaby Joyce to publicly apologise for allowing his New South Wales party leader John Barilaro to brand licenced firearms owners as extremists.

“Those 12,300 licenced firearms owners — including Mr Joyce himself — do not deserve to be branded as criminals-in-waiting by a desperate National Party in search of a headline.”