Barnaby Joyce
Encyclopedia
Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce (born 17 April 1967), Australian politician, has been a National Party
member of the Australian Senate
representing the state of Queensland since July 2005. He is known for being a highly independent member of his party, having crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government.
On 17 September 2008, Joyce succeeded Nigel Scullion
as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate.
, where he met Barnaby's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.
Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales
, and was brought up at Woolbrook
. One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family, he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview
, in Sydney.
Joyce graduated with a commerce degree from the University of New England
in Armidale
, and served in the Australian Army Reserve
from 1994 to 1999. At university Joyce met his wife, Natalie, and they married in 1993. After graduating, Joyce moved around northern New South Wales and Queensland, and at one point worked as a bouncer
. Joyce worked in the accounting profession before entering Parliament and is an FCPA (Fellow of CPA Australia
). The Joyces have four daughters and now live in St George
in western Queensland, where Joyce had an accounting business.
A Roman Catholic, Joyce served as President of the St George
branch of the Society of St Vincent de Paul 1998–2004.
and was a prominent voice in the parliamentary debate against the introduction of the drug RU-486. He has also consistently opposed the use of capital punishment. He took offence at a pamphlet put out by Family First
candidate Danny Nalliah
, which identified bottle shops, brothels, masonic lodges
, mosque
s, and Hindu
and Buddhist
temples as "strongholds of Satan
", and said that he did not want the preferences
of such a party. Joyce criticised the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and saying that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with". Nonetheless he gained office with preference flows from Family First Party, among many others including Pauline Hanson
.
On the economy, Senator Joyce has often earned the ire of his economic rationalist parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party of Australia
. Joyce has taken up a number of causes often labelled as populist
, such as his support for the retention of a single-desk wheat export marketing system for Australian grain growers, drought assistance for primary producers, and amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974
and media reform regulations that aim to strengthen the ability of small business to compete with multi-national corporations. When questioned on his views, he stated "Maybe I'm an agrarian socialist
, I don't know, is there a problem with being an agrarian socialist?".
On 17 March 2009, Joyce launched a privately funded advertisement campaign to keep Rio Tinto
local, attacking a bid by the Chinese government-owned resources company Chinalco, a bid which has also been heavily criticised by Legal & General
in the United Kingdom.
In August 2011 Joyce spoke at an anti same-sex marriage rally, claiming that same-sex marriage legislation would affect his daughters' rights to marry men. In response Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
stated "There is nothing in my Marriage Equality Bill that would prevent Senator Joyce's daughters from getting married to the partner of their choice, rather than taking rights away, the bill extends the rights to all couples."
Joyce was elected to the Senate
in the 2004 election, his term commencing on 1 July 2005. His term will run until 30 June 2011. Joyce regained the seat that the Nationals lost to the One Nation Party
in 1998, defeating the One Nation Senator Len Harris
. The Liberals won three seats in Queensland, making this the first time since the enlargement of the Senate in 1984 that a party or coalition had won four of the six available Senate seats from a single state.
Joyce won 6.5 percent of the vote on first preferences (see Australian electoral system
), well short of the 14.3 percent required for election, but made up for lost ground by the flow of second preferences from eliminated candidates of the Family First
and One Nation
parties, as well as from the independent candidate, Pauline Hanson
. The count attracted considerable media attention because Joyce's election contributed to the ruling Coalition
government having control of the Senate for the first time since 1981, a result that few political commentators had expected.
Joyce said before taking his seat in July 2005 that he would not be a cipher and that the government should not take his support for granted. In particular, he initially expressed misgivings about the government's proposed sale of Telstra
, the partially state-owned telecommunications company, and claimed that he would vote against the sale unless he and the rest of the party were satisfied that its service in rural areas was adequate and that privatisation would not adversely affect it.
Joyce's maiden speech
to the Senate on 16 August 2005 was widely reported in the Queensland media. He expressed his desire to see the power of Australia's retailing duopoly
, Coles Myer and Woolworths Limited
, reduced so as to protect small business and consumer rights. He also espoused the virtues of free enterprise
, particularly at the small business and family-owned business level. As well, having earlier told a Right to Life conference in July that his greatest goal in public life was to ban "the unfortunate carnage" of abortion, he used his first speech to identify abortion as the "slavery debate of our time".
On 17 August 2005 the Government announced a package of $3 billion to improve telecommunications services in regional and rural areas. On the basis of this, the National Party, including Joyce, agreed to support the sale of Telstra. This led the Labor Party to label Joyce "Backdown Barney" and "Barnaby Rubble" in an acrimonious parliamentary debate. Joyce voted with the Government in the Senate on 14 September 2005, to sell the Government's remaining share of Telstra. As the Telstra Sale Legislation had been pursued by the lower house in prior parliamentary sessions with no assistance package for regional Australia it is Joyce who is credited for negotiating and holding out till the multi billion dollar assistance package was delivered so as to attain his vote in the Senate.
Senator Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the ALP and minor parties on 11 October 2005 on two motions concerning the Trade Practices Act 1974
. Although both motions were lost 32–32, it was the first time since 1986 that a Government Senator has crossed the floor.
Joyce also said that he would not support the Government's "Voluntary Student Unionism
" Bill banning the levying of compulsory service or amenity fees by universities without amendment because he believed it would unfairly disadvantage regional universities . However, Joyce was unsuccessful in his attempt to amend the bill, and subsequently crossed the floor on 9 December 2005 to oppose it. This was ultimately futile as the Government had secured the vote of Family First
Senator Steve Fielding
.
One of Senator Joyce's major successes was the passage of the Birdsville Amendment, outlawing predatory pricing
of big retailers against small business and the capping of share ownership on the sale of Medibank Private
to 15% to keep it in Australians hands as well as being at the forefront of the fight to keep Qantas
as an Australian publicly listed company.
In October 2006 he again crossed the floor, unsuccessfully moving amendments to the government's cross media ownership laws.
In May 2006 Joyce promoted mining of Antarctica (mining is banned under the Antarctic Treaty). Joyce justified his proposal by saying:
The only practising accountant in the coalition, he has a bluntness to the economic debate that raises the ire of his colleagues but has interested the media such as with his statement on the Rudd
Labor government's first stimulus package in 2008, supported at the time by the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull
, that it would "be spread across the floor on Christmas Day with 'Made in China' written on the back". The Coalition backed Joyce's position of rejecting later stimulus packages.
In September 2008, Joyce replaced CLP Senator and Nationals deputy leader Nigel Scullion
as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opens up another possible avenue for the government to get legislation through. He was able to gain the majority support of the five Nationals (including one CLP) Senators through Fiona Nash
and John Williams, with Nash giving Scullion the tap on the shoulder. The takeover was not expected nor revealed to the party until after it took place.
In February 2010 Joyce declared that Australia was "going to hock to our eyeballs to people overseas" and was "getting to a point where we can't repay it". This led to a response from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens
, that he had "yet to meet a finance minister (sic) who has ever mused any possibility about debt default of his own country" and that there were "few things less likely than Australia defaulting on its sovereign debt".
Joyce was re-elected in the 2010 election on a joint LNP ticket with Senators Brandis and Mason and is the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water and retained the role as leader of the Nationals in the Senate.
National Party of Australia
The National Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Traditionally representing graziers, farmers and rural voters generally, it began as the The Country Party, but adopted the name The National Country Party in 1975, changed to The National Party of Australia in 1982. The party is...
member of the Australian Senate
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
representing the state of Queensland since July 2005. He is known for being a highly independent member of his party, having crossed the floor 19 times under the Howard coalition government.
On 17 September 2008, Joyce succeeded Nigel Scullion
Nigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion , Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian Senate for the Northern Territory since November 2001, representing the Country Liberal Party...
as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate.
Early life
His father, James Joyce, was a New Zealander who moved to Australia to study veterinary science at the University of SydneyUniversity of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
, where he met Barnaby's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.
Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales
Tamworth, New South Wales
Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
, and was brought up at Woolbrook
Woolbrook, New South Wales
Woolbrook is a village in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The nearest town, Walcha is 29 km to the east of Woolbrook. At the 2006 census, Woolbrook had a population of 220....
. One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family, he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview
St Ignatius' College, Riverview
Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview is a Roman Catholic, day and boarding school for boys, located in Riverview, a small suburb situated on the Lane Cove River on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, in Sydney.
Joyce graduated with a commerce degree from the University of New England
University of New England, Australia
The University of New England is an Australian public university with approximately 18,000 higher education students. Its original and main campus is located in the city of Armidale in northern New South Wales....
in Armidale
Armidale, New South Wales
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale Dumaresq Shire had a population of 19,485 people according to the 2006 census. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region...
, and served in the Australian Army Reserve
Australian Army Reserve
The Australian Army Reserve is a collective name given to the reserve units of the Australian Army. Since the Federation of Australia in 1901, the reserve military force has been known by many names, including the Citizens Forces, the Citizen Military Forces, the Militia and, unofficially, the...
from 1994 to 1999. At university Joyce met his wife, Natalie, and they married in 1993. After graduating, Joyce moved around northern New South Wales and Queensland, and at one point worked as a bouncer
Bouncer (doorman)
A bouncer is an informal term for a type of security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behavior, or attractiveness...
. Joyce worked in the accounting profession before entering Parliament and is an FCPA (Fellow of CPA Australia
CPA Australia
CPA Australia is one of three professional accounting bodies in Australia, the others being the Institute of Public Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia....
). The Joyces have four daughters and now live in St George
St George, Queensland
St George is a town of approximately 2400 people in south-western Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Balonne. It was named by Major Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Balonne River on St George's Day, 23 April 1846. At the 2006 census, St George had a population of...
in western Queensland, where Joyce had an accounting business.
A Roman Catholic, Joyce served as President of the St George
St George, Queensland
St George is a town of approximately 2400 people in south-western Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Balonne. It was named by Major Thomas Mitchell who crossed the Balonne River on St George's Day, 23 April 1846. At the 2006 census, St George had a population of...
branch of the Society of St Vincent de Paul 1998–2004.
Political views
Senator Joyce holds conservative views on most moral and social issues. Joyce is pro-lifePro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
and was a prominent voice in the parliamentary debate against the introduction of the drug RU-486. He has also consistently opposed the use of capital punishment. He took offence at a pamphlet put out by Family First
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
candidate Danny Nalliah
Danny Nalliah
Danny Nalliah is an Australian Christian evangelist pastor and young earth creationist. He is the leader of Rise Up Australia, a prayer organisation, and the President of Catch the Fire Ministries. Danny Nalliah successfully defended a law suit commenced by the Islamic Council of Victoria under...
, which identified bottle shops, brothels, masonic lodges
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s, and Hindu
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
and Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
temples as "strongholds of Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
", and said that he did not want the preferences
Australian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
of such a party. Joyce criticised the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and saying that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with". Nonetheless he gained office with preference flows from Family First Party, among many others including Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
.
On the economy, Senator Joyce has often earned the ire of his economic rationalist parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
. Joyce has taken up a number of causes often labelled as populist
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
, such as his support for the retention of a single-desk wheat export marketing system for Australian grain growers, drought assistance for primary producers, and amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974
Trade Practices Act 1974
The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. On 1 January 2011 the Trade Practices Act 1974 was renamed the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The act provides for protection of consumers and prevents some restrictive trade practices of companies. It is the key...
and media reform regulations that aim to strengthen the ability of small business to compete with multi-national corporations. When questioned on his views, he stated "Maybe I'm an agrarian socialist
Agrarian socialism
Agrarian socialism is a socioeconomic political system which combines an agrarian way of life with socialist economic policies.When compared to standard socialist systems which are generally urban/industrial , internationally oriented, and more progressive/liberal in terms of social orientation,...
, I don't know, is there a problem with being an agrarian socialist?".
On 17 March 2009, Joyce launched a privately funded advertisement campaign to keep Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto Group
The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...
local, attacking a bid by the Chinese government-owned resources company Chinalco, a bid which has also been heavily criticised by Legal & General
Legal & General
Legal & General Group Plc , commonly known as Legal & General, is a multinational financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its products include life insurance, general insurance, pensions and investments. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Egypt, France, Germany,...
in the United Kingdom.
In August 2011 Joyce spoke at an anti same-sex marriage rally, claiming that same-sex marriage legislation would affect his daughters' rights to marry men. In response Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Sarah Hanson-Young
Sarah Coral Hanson-Young is an Australian politician. She has been a Greens member of the Australian Senate since July 2008, representing the state of South Australia. she is the youngest person ever elected to the Australian Senate....
stated "There is nothing in my Marriage Equality Bill that would prevent Senator Joyce's daughters from getting married to the partner of their choice, rather than taking rights away, the bill extends the rights to all couples."
Senate service
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives. Senators are popularly elected under a system of proportional representation. Senators are elected for a term that is usually six years; after a double dissolution, however,...
in the 2004 election, his term commencing on 1 July 2005. His term will run until 30 June 2011. Joyce regained the seat that the Nationals lost to the One Nation Party
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
in 1998, defeating the One Nation Senator Len Harris
Len Harris
Leonard William Harris was an Australian politician who was the only One Nation representative to gain a seat in the Australian Parliament as a Senator from the state of Queensland...
. The Liberals won three seats in Queensland, making this the first time since the enlargement of the Senate in 1984 that a party or coalition had won four of the six available Senate seats from a single state.
Joyce won 6.5 percent of the vote on first preferences (see Australian electoral system
Australian electoral system
The Australian electoral system has evolved over nearly 150 years of continuous democratic government, and has a number of distinctive features including compulsory voting, preferential voting and the use of proportional voting to elect the upper house, the Australian Senate.- Compulsory voting...
), well short of the 14.3 percent required for election, but made up for lost ground by the flow of second preferences from eliminated candidates of the Family First
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
and One Nation
One Nation Party
One Nation is a far-right and nationalist political party in Australia. It gained 22% of the vote translating to 11 of 89 seats in Queensland's unicameral legislative assembly at the 1998 state election and made major inroads into the vote of the existing parties...
parties, as well as from the independent candidate, Pauline Hanson
Pauline Hanson
Pauline Lee Hanson is an Australian politician and former leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a political party with a populist and anti-multiculturalism platform...
. The count attracted considerable media attention because Joyce's election contributed to the ruling Coalition
Coalition (Australia)
The Coalition in Australian politics refers to a group of centre-right parties that has existed in the form of a coalition agreement since 1922...
government having control of the Senate for the first time since 1981, a result that few political commentators had expected.
Joyce said before taking his seat in July 2005 that he would not be a cipher and that the government should not take his support for granted. In particular, he initially expressed misgivings about the government's proposed sale of Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
, the partially state-owned telecommunications company, and claimed that he would vote against the sale unless he and the rest of the party were satisfied that its service in rural areas was adequate and that privatisation would not adversely affect it.
Joyce's maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
to the Senate on 16 August 2005 was widely reported in the Queensland media. He expressed his desire to see the power of Australia's retailing duopoly
Duopoly
A true duopoly is a specific type of oligopoly where only two producers exist in one market. In reality, this definition is generally used where only two firms have dominant control over a market...
, Coles Myer and Woolworths Limited
Woolworths Limited
Woolworths Limited is a major Australian company with extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the:* largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalisation and sales...
, reduced so as to protect small business and consumer rights. He also espoused the virtues of free enterprise
Free enterprise
-Transport:* Free Enterprise I, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1962 and 1980.* Free Enterprise II, a ferry in service with European Ferries between 1965 and 1982....
, particularly at the small business and family-owned business level. As well, having earlier told a Right to Life conference in July that his greatest goal in public life was to ban "the unfortunate carnage" of abortion, he used his first speech to identify abortion as the "slavery debate of our time".
Senator Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the ALP and minor parties on 11 October 2005 on two motions concerning the Trade Practices Act 1974
Trade Practices Act 1974
The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is an act of the Parliament of Australia. On 1 January 2011 the Trade Practices Act 1974 was renamed the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The act provides for protection of consumers and prevents some restrictive trade practices of companies. It is the key...
. Although both motions were lost 32–32, it was the first time since 1986 that a Government Senator has crossed the floor.
Joyce also said that he would not support the Government's "Voluntary Student Unionism
Voluntary student unionism
Voluntary student unionism is a policy, notable in Australia, under which membership of – and payment of membership fees to – university student organisations is voluntary....
" Bill banning the levying of compulsory service or amenity fees by universities without amendment because he believed it would unfairly disadvantage regional universities . However, Joyce was unsuccessful in his attempt to amend the bill, and subsequently crossed the floor on 9 December 2005 to oppose it. This was ultimately futile as the Government had secured the vote of Family First
Family First Party
The Family First Party is a socially conservative minor political party in Australia. It has two members in the South Australian Legislative Council...
Senator Steve Fielding
Steve Fielding
Steven "Steve" Fielding , was a Senator representing the state of Victoria and the federal parliamentary leader of the Family First Party in Australia. Elected to the Senate at the 2004 federal election on two percent of the Victorian vote, he failed to gain re-election at the 2010 federal election...
.
One of Senator Joyce's major successes was the passage of the Birdsville Amendment, outlawing predatory pricing
Predatory pricing
In business and economics, predatory pricing is the practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors. If competitors or potential competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices...
of big retailers against small business and the capping of share ownership on the sale of Medibank Private
Medibank Private
Medibank is an Australian government-owned private health insurer, established under the Fraser government in 1976 through the Health Insurance Commission . It is Australia's largest health insurance provider with 3.6 million members under two brands, and the only health insurer present in every...
to 15% to keep it in Australians hands as well as being at the forefront of the fight to keep Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
as an Australian publicly listed company.
In October 2006 he again crossed the floor, unsuccessfully moving amendments to the government's cross media ownership laws.
In May 2006 Joyce promoted mining of Antarctica (mining is banned under the Antarctic Treaty). Joyce justified his proposal by saying:
There's minerals there, there's gold, there's iron ore, there's coal, there's huge fish resources and what you have to ask is: 'Do I turn my head and allow another country to exploit my resource ... or do I position myself in such a way as I'm going to exploit it myself before they get there'.
The only practising accountant in the coalition, he has a bluntness to the economic debate that raises the ire of his colleagues but has interested the media such as with his statement on the Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...
Labor government's first stimulus package in 2008, supported at the time by the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull is an Australian politician. He has been a member of the Australian House of Representatives since 2004, and was Leader of the Opposition and parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party from 16 September 2008 to 1 December 2009.Turnbull has represented the Division...
, that it would "be spread across the floor on Christmas Day with 'Made in China' written on the back". The Coalition backed Joyce's position of rejecting later stimulus packages.
In September 2008, Joyce replaced CLP Senator and Nationals deputy leader Nigel Scullion
Nigel Scullion
Nigel Gregory Scullion , Australian politician, has been a member of the Australian Senate for the Northern Territory since November 2001, representing the Country Liberal Party...
as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opens up another possible avenue for the government to get legislation through. He was able to gain the majority support of the five Nationals (including one CLP) Senators through Fiona Nash
Fiona Nash
Fiona Joy Nash , Australian politician, has been a National Party of Australia member of the Australian Senate since 1 July 2005, representing the state of New South Wales....
and John Williams, with Nash giving Scullion the tap on the shoulder. The takeover was not expected nor revealed to the party until after it took place.
In February 2010 Joyce declared that Australia was "going to hock to our eyeballs to people overseas" and was "getting to a point where we can't repay it". This led to a response from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens
Glenn Stevens
Glenn Robert Stevens is an Australian economist and the current Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia.-Early life and education:...
, that he had "yet to meet a finance minister (sic) who has ever mused any possibility about debt default of his own country" and that there were "few things less likely than Australia defaulting on its sovereign debt".
Joyce was re-elected in the 2010 election on a joint LNP ticket with Senators Brandis and Mason and is the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water and retained the role as leader of the Nationals in the Senate.
External links
- Barnaby Joyce's official Senate home page – includes transcript of maiden speech