Barnaby Joyce: Outgoing leader laments slow progress on Inland Rail

The deposed Nationals leader is proud of many of his deals to benefit regional Australia, but still laments the speed of the Inland Rail project.

Outgoing leader Barnaby Joyce remains proud of the deal he crunched with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison in exchange for the Nationals’ support on a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050.

On the day after he was deposed as leader, Mr Joyce said regional Australia would be a long-term major beneficiary of the package he valued “north of $21 billion” and maybe as much as $30b.

Mr Joyce said his “bush accountant” skills came to the fore in dealings with Mr Morrison late last year, before the latter jetted off to the UN’s Glasgow summit with a commitment on net zero from Australia.

Former leader of the National Party, Barnaby Joyce at Parliament House. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Taylor

“I really screwed a good deal out of that,” Mr Joyce said.

The money was confirmed in the recent budget with a string of project announcements, mainly in Northern Australia, during the election campaign.

The package also includes $2 billion for a regional accelerator program, which had been championed for more than a year by the National Farmers Federation.

But Mr Joyce has one regret, the slow speed of one of his signature projects in government, Inland Rail. He turned the heat on states for their slow approval processes.

“That has to go quicker,” he said.

“We’ve got to get more of that track down, we’ve got to get corridors built, we’ve got to move it along because the nation needs it.”

Inland Rail passing a canola field in Parkes.

Mr Joyce dismissed criticisms from National colleague Darren Chester about the former leader’s style being a turn-off for voters and contributing in part to Liberal defeats to “teal” independents in Melbourne and Sydney inner suburbs.

“Darren is entitled to his own views,” he said.

“My job is to win my colleagues’ seats and we did that.

“You can’t look over the fence and say ‘well, the reason this happened to me is what happened down the road’.”

Mr Joyce committed to seeing out the full term and would take on a frontbench role from his successor, David Littleproud.