Politics with Michelle Grattan: Barnaby Joyce on getting on with Pauline Hanson and One Nation’s rise |
Barnaby Joyce’s political career has hit the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
He’s been Nationals leader and deputy prime minister twice. As a senator, he was a maverick, often crossing the floor. As party leader, he had a dramatic falling out then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Later he delivered vital Nationals support for net zero emissions to then prime minister Scott Morrison, even while personally disagreeing strongly with the policy.
Just two months ago, he decamped to the reinvigorated One Nation as the minor party’s popularity has soared, with some polls even putting it ahead of the Liberals and Nationals.
Joyce joins us to talk about how he sees One Nation’s future and his own.
On his defection to One Nation, Joyce says One Nation’s “strength” and “clarity of policy” attracted to him to the party, at the same time as his working relationship with Nationals leader David Littleproud became “completely dysfunctional”.
It was discordant. I was becoming bitter, and that’s not the mind space that I want to be in. Obviously, Mr Littleproud........