Barnaby Joyce has given Sunrise host Nat Barr a one-word answer in a grilling on his possible future with One Nation, following his bombshell split from the National Party.
The New England MP made the shock announcement on Saturday that he would not recontest the seat for the Nationals at the next election, saying his relationship with party leadership had “irreperably broken down”.
The revelation came amid speculation Mr Joyce was planning to defect to One Nation.
In his first interview since the huge call, the former Nationals leader again stressed that his relationship with the party was “not going well”.
“The relationship is broken,” he said.
“That happens, you just have to deal with that.”
Pressed by Barr on whether he was planning to join One Nation and then whether leader Pauline Hanson had tapped him on the shoulder to take the party reins if she retires, Mr Joyce hit back with a one-word answer.
“No!” he said.
“You amaze me.
“I did ring (Ms Hanson) last night because (the media is) talking about us, we may as well speak to each other rather than through media … said g’day and there was nothing locked in.”
He hit out at assumptions made about his next steps.
“Not even in a matter of minutes, (I’ve) resigned from the Nationals, joined One Nation – which I haven’t done – then leaving within a few hours and leading One Nation, and people were complaining about my leadership of a party I’m not even a member of,” he said.
“Let’s take it down a step. I have not joined One Nation.”
Ms Hanson has openly welcomed Mr Joyce’s anticipated move to her party, telling the crowd at the launch of a One Nation New England branch at Tamworth on Saturday that he was the right fit.
“He’s spoken about the net zero. He’s very passionate about it. It’s ruining our country, we’re on the same page,” she said.
“He is more aligned with One Nation (than) what he was with the National Party.”
She said he would be welcomed to the party with open arms.
“I encourage him. Barnaby … I’ll open doors for you. Come across to One Nation.”
Nationals leader David Littleproud has urged Mr Joyce to reconsider and stay with the party, but Mr Joyce has so far remained firm.
He told Sunrise that his and Mr Littleproud’s relationship had broken down and he was tired of “playing silly games of charades”..
“I do believe has been a breakdown in the relationship between myself and David and others,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s conducive to a harmonious party room for them or, to be honest, for me.
“Everybody knows it. I think it is playing silly games of charades that everything is fine and … going well. It wasn’t.
“The best thing to do there is to move on, which is what I can do.”
In a statement revealing the bombshell move on Saturday, Mr Joyce said: “My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down.
“I will not be standing for New England again but will complete my term as promised at the last election.
“The instructions that during the federal election I was not to campaign outside New England as that did not represent the views of the Nationals, then after the election being moved on for ‘generational change’.
“And just 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.
“More importantly our position in continuing to support net zero with the massive schism and hurt to my electorate, to small businesses, to the environment, to the poor, to the defence of Australia and creating hate between lifelong friends in my community makes continuing in the Nationals’ Party Room in Canberra under this policy untenable.
He said he would be keeping his options open.
“I am free to now consider all options as to what I do next,” he said.
https://thewest.com.au/news/take-it-down-a-step-barnaby-joyce-hits-back-at-nat-barr-over-one-nation-question-c-20405658
