Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has announced that he will break from the party at the end of this term of government, amid rumours he’s in talks to now join Pauline Hanson‘s One Nation.
Joyce said he left the party over the Coalition’s support for net zero and his relegation to the “far corner” of the backbenches.
“My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down,” Joyce said in a letter sent to branch members on Saturday.
“The atmospherics in the party room, where I am seated in the far corner of the Coalition in the chamber, means I am seen and now turning into a discordant note. That is not who I want to be,” he added.
Joyce cited his former party’s support of Australia’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, claiming the policy would harm the people in his electorate due to the expansion of wind farms.
“Our position in continuing to support Net Zero with the massive schism and hurt to my electorate… makes continuing in the Nationals’ Party Room in Canberra under this policy untenable,” he wrote.
Joyce, who led the party in 2016 to 2018 and again in 2021 to 2022, said he is now open to other oppurtunities in politics, but stopped short of confirming rumours he will defect to One Nation.
When questioned today by The Sydney Morning Herald, Joyce and Hanson did not deny the speculation, with Hanson saying she would be “happy to have” Joyce.
In fact, SMH reports that both are in “advanced talks” about Joyce’s defection.
Last week, Hanson publicly stated on ABC radio that Liberal and National party members believed they had no future.
Joyce was first elected to the Senate in 2004, meaning he has been a member of the Nationals for over 20 years.
But while some members of The Coalition were surprised by the idea of Joyce jumping to One Nation, others said it was a likely move given his vocal opposition to the Coalition’s policy of net zero by 2050 and his backing of a former rival and former Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, for a leadership tilt.
Joyce also wouldn’t be the first from the Nationals to bail. Just last week, Steve Coxhead, chair of the Nationals’ Tamworth branch (in Joyce’s own electorate of New England), jumped ship to One Nation, saying the party “does not adequately represent NSW regional and rural voters anymore.”
Hanson seems quite happy to take former Coalition members under her wing, saying a former Liberal president was ready to follow suit, and telling Seven News on Friday that she has her eye on Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, saying they are “in the wrong party”.
Elsewhere in his letter, Joyce apologised to his constituents for his departure.
“I hope that the members understand the unfortunate position I am in and the obvious action after a period of consideration I must take,” he said.
“I am so desperately sorry as to the hurt this may cause and close with the deepest of affection for you all.”
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