Latest news with #BarnabyJoyce
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Malcolm Turnbull's brutal four-word sledge for Barnaby Joyce - as he lifts the lid on life as a world leader: 'Flooding the zone with s***'
Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a cutting four-word insult to his former deputy Barnaby Joyce. The former Prime Minister, who is no stranger to sharing his unfiltered thoughts, was speaking at an event at the State Library of Victoria this week when he was asked about Joyce, who served as his deputy between 2016 and 2018. Turnbull reportedly told the audience that he 'got on well with Barnaby a lot of the time'. But he described Joyce as 'mercurial', meaning he is given to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood, before he delivered his scathing put-down. 'Better in the morning,' Turnbull quipped. It is a reference to Joyce's well-documented struggles with alcohol. Infamously, Joyce gave up the grog when Daily Mail Australia published a video of him sprawled on a Canberra pavement mumbling obscenities into his phone late at night in February last year. He blamed the embarrassing episode on mixing prescription pills with alcohol and in an interview with Nine Newspapers last June, said he had quite the booze and lost 15kg in the process. But he insisted he was not a 'wowser', adding: 'Maybe at some stage I'll have a beer again, but at the moment, nah'. When Daily Mail Australia visited him in his seat of New England during the election campaign, Joyce was seen picking up a bottle of chardonnay and a six pack of James Boags' premium beer. At the time, Joyce had effectively been trapped in his seat by a leadership rule brought in by Nationals leader David Littleproud which required Nationals MPs to seek permission from head office to travel outside their electorates. Joyce, 58, insisted he was not a 'sook' and would go where he was asked. 'Look I'll go where I'm asked. If somebody said last week, 'oh, s**t. We're in trouble. We need you to go here, here and here.' I'm not a f***ing sook. I'd immediately do it,' he told this publication. 'I had the Hunter Valley campaign saying 'please, please, please come down' so I went down and Lyne said 'please, please, please come across', so I went across, I'm not a sook - I'll go if I'm asked. 'But if I'm not asked, I'm not going to just turn up. That's in their hands. In the meantime, I'll try to turn this into the safest seat in Australia.' He was not far off achieving that, recording an almost two per cent swing and winning by nearly 40,000 votes. Joyce was booted from the frontbench in the newly-unveiled shadow cabinet this week. He rejected Nationals leader David Littleproud's claim that the new frontbench was about promoting 'generational change'. 'It's not about generational change, Joyce told Nine. 'There are people who are older than me now. I'm 58, I'm not 103.' 'So it's not generational change, it's politics and personalities. Let's call it for what it is, let's be straight.' Daily Mail Australia approached Joyce for comment over Turnbull's 'better in the morning' sledge. Turnbull, 70, regularly weighs in on current affairs. He sparked global headlines in March when he described Donald Trump as 'chaotic, rude, abrasive and erratic' in an interview on Bloomberg TV. The US President hit back, describing him as a 'weak and ineffective leader'. Turnbull referenced Trump again this week, when he made fun of his strategy of releasing information and signing executive orders at such an overwhelming rate that is difficult for the media to effectively hold him to account. The technique, called 'flooding the zone', did not impress Turnbull. 'Flooding the zone with s***,' was his view.
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
‘It's abhorrent': Barnaby Joyce vows to oppose Coalition on net zero at every turn after shadow cabinet axing while fiercely criticising moderate Liberals
Barnaby Joyce has railed against the concept of net zero, declaring he would do everything in his power to prevent the Coalition from embracing controversial emission reduction targets following his dumping from shadow cabinet. The ex-Nationals leader was one of many senior figures removed from the Coalition's new look ministry and will now join fellow former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack on the backbench. Mr Joyce blasted Nationals leader David Littleproud's shock decision to exit the Coalition last week and was the most outspoken Nationals figure against the move. He also lashed Mr Littleproud's claim the shadow cabinet shake-up represented a 'generational change', noting the majority of those replacing him were, in fact, older than he was. However, in one of his first on air appearances since the brutal demotion, Mr Joyce embraced the fact he was no longer bound by shadow cabinet solidarity and unloaded on the Coalition's net zero policy, labelling emissions reduction targets a 'great scam'. 'I fervently don't agree with this, I think it's abhorrent and I think it makes our nation weaker, and we've got to fight against it,' Mr Joyce told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. Mr Joyce, who has been a long-time critic of net zero emissions, added the policy was 'mad' and the Coalition needed to 'throw the rule book out the window'. The New England MP also denounced Liberal moderates, including Victorian MP and newly appointed shadow education minister Zoe Mckenzie, for arguing the party needed to take a firm stance on the issue to recapture centrist voters who had abandoned the Coalition. 'We in New England have become the garbage can of your virtue, we are not there to deal with the detritus of your wishes that you'd never wish to be in your electorate,' Mr Joyce said. He then encouraged the few remaining inner city Liberal MPs to erect renewable energy infrastructure in their urban electorates, as opposed to relying on rural areas. 'If you wish for wind towers with the microplastics then put them up off on your beaches, you certainly can do that,' Mr Joyce said. 'Put the transmission lines across your suburbs, you certainly can do that, live your virtue, do not be a hypocrite.' When pressed if he was considering a departure from politics after his ministerial relegation Mr Joyce insisted he still had 'two big tasks' to complete - those being to 'look after the people of the New England and the Upper Hunter' and to 'fight against net zero'. 'Unfortunately, you've got the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Greens, and my own society at the moment, the Nationals, all believing in net zero,' he said. 'So where are you going to get the no argument from? How do you deal with this? How does an intelligent person hear the contrarian view and make an assessment of the facts presented to them?' The Coalition has appeared to edge away from its commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 following its reunification, with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley telling Sky News on Thursday that removing the nuclear moratorium would be the 'first step' in a broader energy reset.
Sky News AU
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Australia must make itself as ‘powerful as possible' amid threat of China
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce discusses the threat China poses to a net zero weakened Australia. 'Communist Chinese … stooging around our nation, of Sydney … they did live fire exercises,' Mr Joyce told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. 'That is practising to attack … we have to make this nation as powerful as possible, as quickly as possible.'
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why net zero is a battle for political middle ground
The Liberal and Nationals parties have launched a review of their commitments to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, which shapes as a defining moment for the Coalition and the nation's long-running climate wars. Both Coalition partners announced, after Labor's thumping federal election win earlier this month, they would throw open debate in their party rooms before finalising their policy offerings. Net zero is among the most pressing issues, given Coalition leader Sussan Ley has committed to end the nation's climate wars and take the Liberal party back to the 'sensible centre' of the political spectrum in a bid to win back the more than 30 seats it would need to form government again. Most of Australia's biggest polluters, including the mining, energy and agriculture sectors, are committed to reaching net zero by 2050, in line with Australia's commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Loading But four prominent Coalition MPs have called the commitment into question. Nationals Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan and Colin Boyce are campaigning for the Coalition to ditch net zero and to instead pursue greater use of fossil fuels in a bid to lower the cost of energy. Liberal Andrew Hastie has called for a debate on net zero. Why is net zero important? The goal is a centrepiece of the Paris Agreement, agreed to by 195 countries. It aims to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels and limit the worst impacts of climate change. It was enshrined as a legally binding treaty at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015. It has been official Australian government policy ever since, through Coalition and Labor governments.
The Age
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Why net zero is a battle for political middle ground
The Liberal and Nationals parties have launched a review of their commitments to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, which shapes as a defining moment for the Coalition and the nation's long-running climate wars. Both Coalition partners announced, after Labor's thumping federal election win earlier this month, they would throw open debate in their party rooms before finalising their policy offerings. Net zero is among the most pressing issues, given Coalition leader Sussan Ley has committed to end the nation's climate wars and take the Liberal party back to the 'sensible centre' of the political spectrum in a bid to win back the more than 30 seats it would need to form government again. Most of Australia's biggest polluters, including the mining, energy and agriculture sectors, are committed to reaching net zero by 2050, in line with Australia's commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Loading But four prominent Coalition MPs have called the commitment into question. Nationals Barnaby Joyce, Matt Canavan and Colin Boyce are campaigning for the Coalition to ditch net zero and to instead pursue greater use of fossil fuels in a bid to lower the cost of energy. Liberal Andrew Hastie has called for a debate on net zero. Why is net zero important? The goal is a centrepiece of the Paris Agreement, agreed to by 195 countries. It aims to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels and limit the worst impacts of climate change. It was enshrined as a legally binding treaty at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in 2015. It has been official Australian government policy ever since, through Coalition and Labor governments.
