Barnaby Joyce reveals call with Pauline Hanson, dodges defection questions

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Barnaby Joyce has confirmed he spoke to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson over the weekend after this masthead revealed he was in advanced talks about defecting to her party.

Joyce dodged repeated questions about the potential shift in interviews on Monday morning, saying nothing had been locked in.

Barnaby Joyce in discussion with Liberal Andrew Hastie during a sitting of Parliament in September.

“I did ring her last night because seeing as they are talking about us, we may as well speak to each other rather than through the media,” Joyce said. “I spoke to her out of politeness because I think this was the decent thing to do.”

“Said g’day and there was nothing locked-in, nothing.”

“I won’t be salami sliced in or out.”

Pressed repeatedly about One Nation on the Sunrise program and Radio National Breakfast, Joyce would not confirm his future plans. But he did praise One Nation compared to other parties because of its opposition to a net zero emissions target by 2050.

“On that issue, I suppose, One Nation is not barking mad like others are,” Joyce said.

This masthead revealed on Friday that Joyce was in advanced talks with Hanson about joining forces. Multiple sources said the plan was for the 58-year-old member for the northern NSW seat of New England to eventually run for One Nation in the Senate and take over as party leader one day.

Hanson said on Sunday that Joyce’s potential move could spur Coalition MPs concerned about migration and climate change targets to defect with him, citing Matt Canavan, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Colin Boyce as options.

“I think that if Barnaby does move, it’ll incentivise some of those others to say this is a movement that’s happening and this is what we stand for,” she said.

Joyce refused to say whether he had spoken to other colleagues about leaving the Nationals and would not predict whether MPs would go.

“That’s for them to make their decision,” Joyce said. “And I’m not going to speak for them.”

Against the backdrop of more internal drama, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will deliver a second economic vision speech committing to offering tax cuts, without specifying details, at the next election after it controversially blocked Labor’s proposed cuts in May.

Ley will also hint at unwinding the government’s pro-union workplace laws that the Dutton opposition left alone.

“That is why the work of the shadow ministry will be anchored in two primary goals: lower personal
income taxes and budget repair,” she will say at the conservative Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney today.

“We will act to deliver intergenerational fairness. Millennials and Gen Z are Australia’s new forgotten generation.”

Ley gave another speech last month outlining her focus on fiscal restraint after the opposition under Peter Dutton was criticised for abandoning Liberal orthodoxy on smaller government.