‘Relationship breakdown’: Barnaby Joyce to leave the Nationals

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson wants Barnaby Joyce to join her party, and believes they are a better fit than the Nationals he once led, after Joyce declared he will break from the Coalition and complained of being relegated to the “far corners” of the backbench.

This masthead broke the news on Friday that Joyce was in advanced talks with Hanson about a switch. Hanson launched a new local branch in Tamworth – in Joyce’s NSW seat of New England – on Saturday night, and said she would welcome Joyce “with open arms”.

“He’s more aligned with One Nation than what he is with the National Party,” Hanson told Nine News.

“He’s been shut down by the National Party. They put him on the back bench, out of the way: ‘Just sit there, shut up, Barnaby.’ I’ll encourage him … [to] come across to One Nation.”

Joyce’s decision not to contest New England for another party, or as an independent candidate, has fuelled speculation he is considering a move into the Senate, which would give him a national platform to campaign.

One Nation sources and sources close to Joyce said the plan was for Joyce to lead One Nation in the lower house until the next election and one day lead the party from the Senate.

Hanson has told colleagues she wanted to run at the next election to keep growing the party, although it is possible she will decide to retire at the next poll.

One Nation’s vote is surging, according to opinion polling. The party gained two senators – for a total of four – at the last election, but its lower house vote did not increase as predicted.

Hanson claimed the Nationals were at their lowest ebb as a party and said that One Nation had opened 50 branches around the country since the May election.

“In Tamworth now you’ve got people that used to be staunch National party have come across to One Nation, because they’ve been hitting their head up against a brick wall, that their members of parliament have not been representing them,” Hanson said.

Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, who was deposed from the party’s leadership by Joyce in 2022 when the Coalition was in government, said Joyce had let down his constituents, who had voted for the Nationals, and the party that had gifted him the deputy prime ministership twice.

“You don’t throw your toys out of the cot ... simply because you don’t get along with the leadership,” he said.

“I lost the deputy prime ministership. Did I turn my back on the National Party? Did I spurn the party that gifted me the great honour of being the deputy prime minister? No, I didn’t.”

Joyce, who did not respond to a request for comment, declared in a letter to branch members on Saturday that he would not stand for his seat of New England at the next election, due by mid-2028.

He did not confirm the political switch but said he was now free to consider his options, raising speculation he could stand for a senate seat.

‘My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals ... has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down.’

Barnaby Joyce

“My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down,” Joyce said in his letter.

“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.”

The Nationals are considering their position on Australia’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, as are the Liberals. Joyce claimed the policy would harm the people of his electorate due to the expansion of wind and solar farms. The claim has made his future with the Nationals untenable.

“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.”

Joyce also highlighted a rule, implemented by Nationals leader David Littleproud, to hide Joyce during the election campaign, effectively barring him from conducting political trips outside his electorate and further alienating him within the party.

McCormack said he had welcomed Joyce to his electorate during the election to campaign against wind farms.

Joyce concluded his letter by stating he was free to consider all options for his future and apologised to his constituents for the predicament.

“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.”

Joyce’s move follows that of a senior NSW Nationals official in Joyce’s New England electorate, Steve Coxhead, who last week quit as Tamworth branch chairman to join One Nation listing climate policies and environmental restrictions on farmers as major concerns.

Coxhead told the AFR on Saturday that 12 members of the Nationals Tamworth branch had defected to One Nation.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price left the Nationals in May and switched to the Liberals for an aborted tilt at that party’s deputy leadership.

Nationals federal president Kay Hull said she was sad to see Joyce leave the party but respected the way he informed his constituents, adding that she did not believe he would represent another political party.

“I’m sorry to see any of our team step down … but there’s a time when you’ve given your best and you make the decision, not only in your own interests, but in the interests of the party, that it’s time for somebody else to step up. I honestly believe that’s how Barnaby is feeling.”

“I would be extraordinarily surprised if Barnaby goes into another political future with another party,” Hull said.

Joyce was first elected Nationals leader in 2016, following the resignation of Warren Truss from the post. Joyce stepped down in 2018 following revelations he was having an affair and was expecting a child with his former communications staffer, and now wife, Vikki Campion. Joyce once again led the party after deposing McCormack in 2021. Joyce lost the leadership to David Littleproud in May 2022.

Littleproud, the Nationals’ current leader, has been contacted for comment.

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