Barnaby Joyce says he and Malcolm Turnbull are the “odd couple” but insists they have a relationship that is delivering for regional voters, and he says the prime minister is safe in his job “as far as I am concerned”.
Before today’s byelection in New England, Joyce has leapt to Turnbull’s defence after a fortnight of open revolt against the prime minister by various National party figures, culminating in a call by the top-ranking New South Wales National, John Barilaro, for Turnbull’s resignation.
Joyce told Guardian Australia he was dismayed by Barilaro’s intervention during an appearance on the radio program of the Sydney shock jock Alan Jones on Friday.
“I feel hurt on Malcolm’s behalf,” Joyce said. “What possessed him to say that?”
Joyce said the Liberals under Turnbull had delivered for the bush and he couldn’t fathom the instability in Canberra, which had degenerated into open conversation in political and media circles about whether the prime minister should remain in the top job.
He said Turnbull had his full support. “He’s safe as far as I’m concerned.”
Joyce is expected on Saturday to hold New England despite triggering the byelection by failing to check whether he met the eligibility requirements under the constitution to sit in parliament.
He faces competition from 16 candidates, with the ALP, the Greens, and a swag of independents in the race – but neither One Nation, nor the shooters party fielded a representative.
Losing the seat would be a disaster for the Turnbull government, which has already lost its working majority in the lower house because of the departures of Joyce and the Sydney Liberal John Alexander, who is fighting to keep his seat of Bennelong.
Over the course of the campaign, Joyce’s personal life became part of the conversation around the electorate. An elliptical report in the Daily Telegraph in late October noted he was “struggling with issues that have affected his marriage of 24 years”. Party sources were quoted saying a “scandal” in Joyce’s private life and the existence of a “dirt file” were upsetting conservative voters.
There have been security incidents during the campaign, with Joyce involved in an altercation with a man in an Inverell pub earlier this week, and reports emerged on Friday that a bullet and a threatening note were found at a school that will be a polling station on Saturday.
In Armidale, the town hall and Joyce’s former electoral office were vandalised, with graffiti reading “no Barnaby”.
Hastily painted over anti-Barnaby graffiti on the Armidale town hall which today is a polling place, it reads "No Barnaby" & "No CSG" also on his former electorate office which has not yet been covered up @murpharoo @AmyRemeikis @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/LcbihOuDM8
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) December 2, 2017
Asked by Guardian Australia early last month whether he had done anything in his private life that he shouldn’t, Joyce replied: “My personal life is my personal business.”
Asked again on election eve, Joyce replied: “That’s my private life and my private life is my business. What should not be done is people trying to make your private business, public business”.
As well as facing questions about his private life, Joyce also had to issue a public explanation after the mining magnate Gina Rinehart awarded him a $40,000 prize for his efforts in the agriculture portfolio – a cheque he had to return.
Joyce said the past several weeks had been a hard contest “and one of the dirtiest campaigns I’ve ever been in”.
But smaller candidates are also crying foul, objecting to Joyce failing to appear at candidate forums throughout the contest, and also to a late blast of digital targeting after the media blackout.
A social media campaign authorised by the NSW National state director Nathan Quigley tells voters in New England who lives in the electorate and who does not.
Pete Mailler, a Boggabilla farmer and former chairman of Grain Producers Australia, is contesting the poll for the rural micro-party, CountryMinded. Mailler said the digital campaign was underhanded given Joyce did not live in Tamworth when he first made the move from the Senate to the lower house to contest New England.
He told Guardian Australia the campaign was a “slur” and “pretty ridiculous” and symptomatic of the whole byelection campaign – “which has been anything but decent”.
On Saturday, the federal transport minister, Darren Chester, hit the hustings for Joyce in Tamworth, handing out how-to-vote cards at the Tamworth town hall.
“We just want to see Barnaby poll very well today, get returned and get back into Canberra and lead out team into the future,” Chester told the local newspaper, the Northern Daily Leader.
