Barnaby Joyce to make decision on One Nation next year

Barnaby Joyce will not return to the Nationals party room or join One Nation this year, with the veteran MP hoping to turn down the temperature over his mooted defection to Pauline Hanson’s party.

In an interview with this masthead Joyce, who remains a National MP but will not contest his seat for the party at the next election, said he would consider his political future over the summer.

The former deputy prime minister argued Nationals leader David Littleproud had isolated him, though he accepted some of the blame for their broken relationship, which was the trigger for his discussions with Hanson about joining her party.

Joyce said Liberal leader Sussan Ley faced a “very tough run” to the next election and added that she needed to have her most talented MPs, such as Joyce ally Matt Canavan, in her shadow cabinet rather than languishing on the backbench. “She’s got to get her first-grade team on the paddock,” Joyce said.

At the same time, senior Nationals called for the former party leader to end the damaging speculation about his future and decide quickly whether he would remain with the junior Coalition partner.

Party leader David Littleproud said Joyce was welcome back in the party room after he skipped Monday’s meeting where net zero policy was discussed, but former leader Michael McCormack and Nationals federal president Kay Hull issued less conciliatory responses.

“If you’re a member of the Nats and you haven’t resigned from the Nats, then your obligation is to be in the Nats room,” McCormack said.

McCormack, also a former leader of the party, had teamed up with Joyce on his push to ditch the net zero target earlier this year but was critical of his colleague for abandoning the party room.

“The importance of the party room and the history of it was mentioned,” McCormack said. “We have gotten where we are because we’ve stuck together and been a team.”

Hull called Joyce’s running media commentary, which included two interviews and multiple TV appearances on Monday morning, “unhelpful”.

“Barnaby has said he will continue to represent his constituency as a National, but he will not sit in the Nationals party room, nor the Coalition party room,” she said.

“It would be very helpful now if we could just move on and let things lie.” But she added that other MPs had previously distanced themselves from the Nationals but rejoined the fold, creating a path back. “Sometimes you just need to take a breath,” she said.

Joyce said that if he “wanted to be completely disruptive, of course, I suppose I would have resigned and wandered off. I have said my piece, and now I want to take time, as hard as it is for me to turn down the volume, between now and the end of the year”.

“I’ll consider my options and I haven’t made up mind,” he added.

It was the schism with Littleproud, Joyce said, that led him to consider his options and a potential future representing NSW in the Senate for Hanson’s party.

“You only have one life, and you don’t want to be spending a serious chunk of it in an arrangement which is far from perfect, and basically sitting in the back corner, in opposition for what would be another five years, you’re not respecting the opportunity God gave you to have an effective life,” he said.

Asked if he would be prepared to break bread with Littleproud and try to repair the relationship, Joyce was blunt: “It’s not my role to instigate that, it really isn’t, because it looks like if you instigate that, it looks like fawning.”

This masthead revealed nearly two weeks ago that Joyce was in advanced talks with Senator Pauline Hanson about defecting to One Nation. Such a move would have significant ramifications for the Nationals, who would lose one of their best retail politicians, a two-time former leader and powerhouse fundraiser.

Joyce has suggested that this current term of parliament will be his last representing the seat of New England, but has left the door open to a return to the Senate.

Earlier on Monday, Joyce was asked if he was trying to “have his cake and eat it too” by not attending party meetings but still sitting with his Nationals colleagues, Joyce said no, pointing to the same precedent as Hull.

Speaking to Sky News earlier on Monday morning, Joyce said that net zero was “devastating for regional people.” Amending targets would not do, Joyce said. “I want to get rid of net zero.”

Littleproud said Joyce was still a member of the Nationals and “I made it very clear he’s welcomed back into our party room”.

“What we’ve got to do is continue to create an environment where Barnaby feels welcome and wants to come back and can contribute,” Littleproud told Sky News.

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