Wall St was down 94 overnight, its biggest fall in a month, while the local market is down 66.
Barnaby’s gotta go … and fast
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Barnaby Joyce is a serious threat to the electoral prospects of the Coalition and must be removed forthwith from Opposition ranks. There is, simply put, no further benefit, and considerable risk, in keeping the Queensland senator in the tent. Under the Howard government, Joyce was at best nuisance value. His tendency to cross the floor did not wreck too many Bills. He almost derailed the government’s media law reforms after reneging on a party-room agreement to support the Bills, but Steve Fielding saved the day by supporting them. But for most of the past two years, emboldened by the lack of authoritative leadership in either his own party or the Liberal Party, Joyce has stopped being a nuisance and has become, instead, highly damaging. For what end is not entirely clear. He appears to believe the Nationals must carve out a more separate identity from the Liberals, but at the same time he wants the benefits of a coalition, including sharing power in the event they return to power. Take last week, for instance. The Coalition managed, briefly, to keep the focus on the government, with most media attention focused on the Prime Minister’s relatively poor handling of the asylum-seeker issue. Joyce apparently decided that wasn’t right, and made two valiant efforts to swing the focus back onto the Coalition’s internal problems. He launched a remarkable attack on Bill Heffernan over Cubbie Station, deliberately targeting his Liberal colleague despite Nick Xenophon saying exactly the same things about Cubbie’s viability as Heffernan did. And then, on the weekend, Joyce went to Glenn Milne to issue a quite astonishing set of demands to the Liberals. First was that Malcolm Turnbull “shut down” (Milne’s words) any of his MPs who criticise the Nationals. Coming two days after he had savaged Heffernan, that was rich indeed. Second was that Turnbull break off negotiations with the government on its CPRS and adopt the Nationals’ line of complete opposition (and, presumably, pig-headed denial that climate change even exists). The second demand is simply remarkable. It directly contradicts the position adopted by the Nationals and Liberals at the joint party-room meeting just over a fortnight ago, which was that negotiations with the government proceed. Joyce appears to have no interest in what his own party room decided just 15 days ago. It’s clearly no longer just about the Nationals and their quest for relevance as Australian politics leaves them behind. There is no apparent purpose behind Joyce’s destabilisation, because he must surely know — if only because Queensland state politics has demonstrated it for the past 20 years — that splitting the Coalition will condemn the conservative side of politics to permanent Opposition. No, now it’s about the ego of Barnaby Joyce. Perhaps he started to believe all that publicity about being a maverick and the voice of regional Australia. Joyce is not even his party’s leader. He’s the leader of a rump of senators who need a bloke from another party to sit with them in order to get party status. Yet he feels entitled to tell the Liberals how to run their party and ignores decisions made in his own party room. So here we are, again, talking about the Opposition’s internal problems, watching the Coalition rip and tear at each other. This is entirely the fault of Joyce. If he continues in the federal Coalition, he will continue to destabilise, to distract, to redirect attention from the government to the Opposition. All, apparently, because of his own ego. He has no alternative strategy. He is not even interested in the basic idea of trying to improve the government’s legislation, which must surely be the first responsibility of any Opposition. But, you might observe, Joyce is a Nationals senator and surely the Nationals will not kick out their highest-profile member? Ah, but he’s not a Nationals senator. He’s a member of the Liberal National Party, which is affiliated with the Liberal Party. The federal Liberal Party should demand that the LNP remove Joyce. There is no downside to having Joyce sit as an independent. His vote cannot be relied on now in the Senate, given his professed willingness to cross the floor on any issue. Indeed, as he showed over the media policy legislation in 2006, he cannot even be relied on to vote the way he says he will vote. Once he is removed from the Coalition, his incessant criticism of the Liberals will simply be one more voice of criticism from their political opponents. You can’t destabilise from without. It would even be in Joyce’s own interests, enabling him to work on building his own political profile. The alternative is more of the same, until he succeeds in breaking the Coalition apart or, worse, simply provides permanent disunity and destabilisation. As we’ve said time and again, Australia needs an Opposition worthy of the name, not one obsessed with its own internal problems. It’s not merely for their own good that the Opposition needs to get rid of this bloke, and fast. |
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17 Comments
Barnaby needs colonic irrigation. His brain is drought-affected.
Almost a walking, talking First Dog on the Moon cartoon in the flesh, “Barnyard Joystick” does serve a purpose, but you’d have to call it pure entertainment for those of us happy to see the “Opposition” thrashing about like a headless chook.
Yeah, “Australia needs an Opposition worthy of the name”, but as St Augustine said, “not yet”…we’re having way too much fun!
Well said! ….I cannot for the life of me work out what Sen Joyce’s agenda is….to the extent that I sincerely wonder whether he is OK mentally…his behaviour is increasingly peculiar and irrational.
But Barney and Fred Tuckey are hilarious - parliament without them is like Hey Hey minus red faces. Why bother tuning in otherwise?
Perhaps PM Rudd has struck a deal with Joyce. Destabalise the Coalition from within and when Joyce is booted out, Rudd will have a nice cosy job waiting if life as an independant doesn’t appeal. Given the way Rudd is handing out plumb jobs to his once deadly enemies, anything is possible. According to the First Lady, the PM wouldn’t kick the dog or the cat, but by all that is Labor he is sure doing a great job of kicking the Opposition all over the paddock. Incidently someone (heaven only knows who?)should whisper in Turnbull’s ear not to continually moan, criticise and generally oppose everything Rudd and the Government do. He is now coming accross as a serial whinger, talking to a few Liberal supporters over the weekend, they are not impressed with his continual anti stance on practically everything the PM says. He was at it again yesterday, praising the Costello appointment in one breath, then attacking Rudd in the next. There are many Libs who are quietly very comfortable with the move. Turnbull may find he gets more of a lift if he some times appears to be a warm pleasant Opposition leader, but perhaps he just is a mean, sour, whining, loser. Sad really, his family must love him. Incidently appearing regularly on the Parrotts 2GB show, merely echoes Jones hatred of Rudd and the Government. Doubt there many votes to be won there for Turnbull.
Interesting argument, more akin to ALP sophistry than resonating? He’s obviously a red neck extractive land use type. He fits right in with the Nats, and probably deserves them and vice versa when the Climate DD comes to smash them. It will only take one cyclone/multiple fatalities in Brisbane or Cairns or Coffs Harbour to push them off the edge.
If anything BJ should resign from Parliament and give more time to his family. That’s his achilles heel. And he’s getting fat too. Does he want to end up like Mr Combet?!
Remember he is (or was) a Queensland National. Remember what the Joe for PM stunt did to Howard in the 1987 election. They seem to regard themselves as Queenslanders first and Australians second. They used to own the state (helped by the Bjelke-mander) and from that think it’s their manifest destiny to export their brand of redneck supremacy to the rest of the country (so they’ll have some friends and people will stop laughing at them
). They don’t seem to realise that time has moved on even in the Deep North. The LNP to me is the last gasp of their power dream (a National Trojan Horse in Liberal guise) which isn’t going to fool many Brisbane liberals and certainly isn’t going to fly outside Queensland.
Big difference from the NSW Nationals, from the squattocracy HQ of New England, who have always been in a minority, thus depend on coalitions with the Liberal Party and having been to The Right Schools (like many of the Liberals) play a bit less rough with the other children
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O dear, Mr Keane has got the Rundle virus - writing fifteen paragraphs when five would do the job. The downside of the blogosphere - prolixity.
before you completely bury Joyce tell me why he’s so out of after you’ve had a listen to this link
http://2gb.com.au/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=4998
Hmmm, as the member for Cubbie Station, I guess there’s no real need for his presence in parliament anymore anyway!
Raymond’s theory is interesting. I certainly wouldn’t put it past Rudd.
Here’s another theory: suppose Joyce is planning to do a Pauline Hanson.
Remember two things about Hanson: (1) Her popularity was fundamentally based not so much on racism, as on being “down to earth” and distinct from other politicians. All the racism stuff was just to give them something to talk about, because her supporters were too stupid to have opinions on anything else. (2) She was never defeated in the public opinion sphere; instead she was brought down using trumped-up charges, and still remains a martyr in the eyes of many.
Joyce could concievably take up where she left off.
After all this chat, the fact remains that BJ is impossible to predict, untrustworthy and thus inappropriate as either a leader (of the Nats in the Senate) , or as a team member.
He has well and truly earned a place by himself under a remote tree, rather than with the main body of the herd, down on the flats.
I’ve always assumed that his parents’ were both Charles Dickens fans and horribly prescient in naming him “Barnaby”, after the eponymous novel.
Stephen Marshall, that link goes to Alan Jones interviewing Lord Monckton who claims — imbecile that he is — that the world’s leaders are going to Copenhagen to “sign away democracy for ever, sign away your country to a new communist world dictatorship government”.
What can I say to someone who believes that? Treaties are as strong as governments’ willingness to comply with them. What do you think this “communist world dictatorship” will do if Australia refuses to hand over the keys to the reserve bank? Cancel our library card?
Alan Jones interview with Lord? Monckton of Brenchley, the self appointed member of the House of Lords, who is not a member of the said House. Great start. Also in the camp of self proclaimed climate change sceptic the Heralds Bolt.
let us go to the Wikipedia site and learn all about Mr Monckton.I wonder why you bothered. Also the well known Labor party and Kevin Rudd hater Alan Jones, he who hasnt the guts to come clean about his hidden gay activities, would of course interview a nutter such as Monckton, it suits his game plan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Monckton,_3rd_Viscount_Monckton_of_Brenchley
Jones likes to use idiots like Moncktonthey suit his purpose, but its well worth listening to the i/v after reading about Monckton.
A new world government!!!!!! yea and I’m Elvis Presley hanging out in Lukes Diner in downtown Memphis!!!
Stephen Marshall, there is no source so low as Alan Jones. While we are offering suggested readings to each ther, may I suggest “Jonestown?
Even mildly discerning listeners realise that this bloke is biased, speaks cr_p and has a somewhat unpleasant past.
And he loves himself and only himself.
The mystery of it all is that the Parrot still draws a salary.
Why would Barnaby make demands of Milne, who is in no position to grant them?
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