Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA
Barnaby Joyce has taken a swipe at Malcolm Turnbull for resigning from parliament, suggesting he owes it to the Coalition to stay because otherwise it might lose government.
The newly appointed special envoy for the drought made the comment in a round of media appearances on Tuesday during which he also called for the government to release more environmental water to deal with the “national emergency” drought.
Turnbull – who warned before he was ousted in a leadership spill last Friday that he intended to quit parliament – has announced he will formally resign as the member for the Sydney seat of Wentworth on Friday.
Joyce told Channel Seven’s Sunrise program that Turnbull had been elected to “the highest office in the land” which came with a “sense of honour”, suggesting that part of that honour should include continuing to serve constituents in Wentworth after being deposed.
“So many of us supported Malcolm ... we didn’t want to change the prime minister,” he said.
“But it’s a contractual relationship. If people are going to support you, and you realise you’ve got a one-seat majority, you can’t at the first opportunity put that one-seat majority in jeopardy because you’ve decided you’re no longer the prime minister.”
Joyce said that a leader should “leave on the right terms with your nation” and noted that Turnbull’s resignation could cost the Coalition government.
“I think that people will be disappointed with him about that.”
On Tuesday the independent NSW state MP Alex Greenwich confirmed he would not contest the byelection, but marriage-equality campaigner and former Australian Medical Association president Kerryn Phelps is still considering a run.
Liberal preselection will be contested by Business Council of Australia executive director Andrew Bragg, former Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, and City of Sydney councillor Christine Forster.
If the Liberals were to lose Wentworth the Coalition would hold 74 lower house seats, relying on Nationals MP Kevin Hogan – who has announced he will sit on the crossbench – and independent Bob Katter to guarantee confidence and supply.
As Turnbull exits parliament, Joyce, the former Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, denied that he had taken the special envoy role as a pathway back into the ministry.
“This special envoy role is a pathway for me to help people through the drought,” he told Radio National. “I am absolutely enthusiastic about this. I want to really get stuck into this, not because of some ulterior plan.”
On Monday Tony Abbott suggested that new special envoy roles for himself and Joyce might not be “fair dinkum”, questioning if they were a title without a job.
Joyce said he would “make it work” for himself and people struggling in the drought because they would not look kindly on him “if I turned it down because I was sooking”.
Joyce said the commonwealth had billions of dollars worth of environmental water and if a section of it were diverted it could help grow fodder to keep stock alive.
“You’d work the sums back this way, you’d say: how many stock do we have that have a requirement, how many acres of land do we have available to grow the [fodder] ... and how much water do we need to do it?”
Joyce said he was not suggesting the rivers should return to what he called the “natural state” of being “bone dry” but if people accepted it was a national emergency they should back the plan.
Joyce said the NSW government’s plan to release 15,000 megalitres of environmental water was “substantial” but “a lot more than that” was needed.
