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‘Rank dumbness’: Barnaby Joyce and a Coalition in chaos · The Front

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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, October twenty one, twenty twenty five. What really
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Speaker 1: went down at the highest levels of Dan Andrews Victorian government.
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Speaker 1: Victoria's independent, broad based Anti Corruption Commission is nearing the
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Speaker 1: end of Operation Richmond, its most secretive investigation ever. The
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Speaker 1: probe interlinks between former Premier Dan Andrews and the United
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Speaker 1: Firefighters Union, has stretched over several years and promises to
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Speaker 1: spill all manner of labor party secrets That deep dive
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Speaker 1: into Operation Richmond's origin story is live right now at
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Speaker 1: the Australian dot Com dot au. Australia will lend Papua
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Speaker 1: New Guinea half a billion dollars as part of the
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Speaker 1: freshly signed Puck Puck Defense Treaty, but we won't pick
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Speaker 1: up a six point two million dollar catering bill for
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Speaker 1: Pang's military. The funding will be put towards new rifles,
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Speaker 1: uniforms and aviation training, as well as humanitarian aid and wearhouses.
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Speaker 1: What's going on with Barnaby Joyce, the talented mercurial confounding
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Speaker 1: politician who can distill an idea better than anyone in Politics,
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Speaker 1: says he's quitting the National Party, declining to run at
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Speaker 1: the next election and maybe considering joining Pauline Hanson's One Nation.
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Speaker 1: Today Greg Sheridan on the latest in an opposition struggling
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Speaker 1: to hang on to its own talent.
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Speaker 2: Today I'm acting Prime Minister, or will be for a
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Speaker 2: couple hours until the boss gets back from New Zealand
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Speaker 2: playing crashes, in which case is a permanent thing.
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Speaker 3: Farnaby is your job, as the Americans would say, just
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Speaker 3: a heart beat away from that ultimate power.
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Speaker 2: People have been watching too much West Wing. Have you
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Speaker 2: got to stop it? We start letting movie stars even
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Speaker 2: though they've been the sexiest man alive twice to come
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Speaker 2: into our nation, then why don't we just break the
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Speaker 2: laws for everybody. So it's time that Pistol and Boo
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Speaker 2: bug it off back to the United States.
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Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor, which means we
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Speaker 1: usually invite him on the front to explain the byzantine
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Speaker 1: Indonisian politics of the Middle East. So I can't think
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Speaker 1: of anyone better to explain what's going on inside the
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Speaker 1: Federal Coalition. The latest news is that Barnaby Joyce, one
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Speaker 1: of the most talented political communicators of our age, is
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Speaker 1: blowing up his relationship with the National Party. But I
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Speaker 1: can't really fathom why.
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Speaker 3: Greg.
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Speaker 1: Can you shed any light on what exactly has got
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Speaker 1: Barnaby Joyce's goat and why he says he's leaving the Nats.
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Speaker 3: Well, Claire, I think Barnaby Joyce is a symptom of
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Speaker 3: a wider crisis the Liberal and National Parties. They can't
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Speaker 3: work out how they want to proceed as an opposition
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Speaker 3: and whether they should restructure, whether they can restructure. I
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Speaker 3: think all of them are getting seduced by the idea
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Speaker 3: that the road to success lies in some realignment of
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Speaker 3: right wing politics. And plainly Barnaby Joyce is being wooed
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Speaker 3: by Pauline Hanson's One Nation. It's no secret that Barnaby
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Speaker 3: Joyce and David Little Proud, the National's leader, richly to
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Speaker 3: test each other.
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Speaker 2: It is a reality. The relationship between myself and David
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Speaker 2: over a number of years is well, it's broken down
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Speaker 2: and it's very sad. That's just what happens in some
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Speaker 2: human relationships. It's not really conducive to being effective for me,
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Speaker 2: nor effective for them to remain in the room.
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Speaker 3: I think Joyce has never got over losing the leadership.
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Speaker 3: He was an immensely talented political fear but his personal
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Speaker 3: problems got in the way of his political career and
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Speaker 3: it is an indictment of both him and David Little
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Speaker 3: Proud that they haven't been able to find a way
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Speaker 3: to work together. You know, successful politics all over the
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Speaker 3: world is full of teams who don't like each other.
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Speaker 3: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Bob Hawk and Paul Keating,
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Speaker 3: John Howd and Peter Costello. Not one of those pairs
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Speaker 3: exchanged Christmas cards and went round to each other's house
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Speaker 3: for dinner or anything. But they were very effective combinations
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Speaker 3: and coalition politics now is in a terrible crisis of
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Speaker 3: mediocre performance and grandiose dreams.
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Speaker 1: Barnaby Joyce was elected as a Senator in two thousand
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Speaker 1: and four to represent the National Party for Queensland and
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Speaker 1: he said at the time that the Ben Howard government
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Speaker 1: couldn't rely on him, couldn't take him for granted, that
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Speaker 1: he would behave in Parliament to best represent the people
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Speaker 1: who'd elected him. But he became an incredible asset for
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Speaker 1: the coalition, didn't.
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Speaker 3: He That's absolutely right. So politics is full of paradox,
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Speaker 3: and there is a tension between being a big personality
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Speaker 3: and working as part of a team. And when Barnaby
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Speaker 3: was first elected as a Senator, I think the coalition
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Speaker 3: needed his vote to pass legislation, so they had almost
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Speaker 3: uniquely in history, I think, a majority in the Senate,
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Speaker 3: but it was a majority of one, so if Barnaby
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Speaker 3: went the other way, they didn't get their stuff past,
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Speaker 3: and he made a big fuss about that. But he
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Speaker 3: was a compelling personality. He was a natural populist, which
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Speaker 3: meant he had a good instinct for how people felt
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Speaker 3: about issues, and he was someone who liked to be
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Speaker 3: the center of attention. That is true of many people
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Speaker 3: who go on to be effective leaders, and often the
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Speaker 3: only way to cope with someone like that is to
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Speaker 3: make them leader. And he switched to the Low House
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Speaker 3: and he became leader, and he was a very effective
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Speaker 3: leader of the National Party.
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Speaker 1: Barnaby, despite his very broad accent and his presentation as
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Speaker 1: kind of a simple country accountant, was a highly intelligent,
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Speaker 1: very well educated person who thinks very deeply about big
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Speaker 1: philosophical ideas. He was able to articulate things though I
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Speaker 1: always thought Greg and in a great way in terms
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Speaker 1: of sort of retail politics. Like I remember him talking
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Speaker 1: about the one hundred dollars Sunday ROAs the one hundred
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Speaker 1: dollar roast lamb. That idea really helped kill off the
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Speaker 1: carbon tax, the emissions trading scheme.
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Speaker 2: At the end of our sheep industry. I don't think
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Speaker 2: your working mother is going to be very happy when
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Speaker 2: they're paying over one hundred dollars for a roast.
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Speaker 1: He had that ability to synthesize things, but almost no
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Speaker 1: one else has.
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Speaker 3: The problem with the opposition now is that none of
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Speaker 3: them has a persona which is well known to the
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Speaker 3: Australian people, which stands for anything. They have no definition
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Speaker 3: about their political personality. Whereas Barnaby achieved what every politician wants.
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Speaker 3: He kind of became a celebrity, but he also became
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Speaker 3: associated with certain issues and certain approaches. Now the super
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Speaker 3: genius at all this, of course, was Tony Abbott. The
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Speaker 3: great thing which killed off the carbon tax was the
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Speaker 3: great big tax on everything. But the Opposition can't do
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Speaker 3: that at the moment. The only memorable phrase they've come
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Speaker 3: up with in three and a half years of opposition
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Speaker 3: was James Pattison, the other day talking about how the
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Speaker 3: Albanese government was producing the Victorianization of the Australian economy. Now,
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Speaker 3: part of the art of opposition is to come up
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Speaker 3: with memorable images and phrases which capture a reality and
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Speaker 3: then which also damaged the government by capturing that reality.
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Speaker 3: And I wish they would think of themselves less as
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Speaker 3: Winston Churchill in his wilderness years and more as people
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Speaker 3: who haven't done very well at their job and need
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Speaker 3: to try a lot harder. I mean a lot of
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Speaker 3: it is energy. One thing to like about to Be
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Speaker 3: was that he is just boundless energy. You just bounced
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Speaker 3: around all the time. You couldn't shut him up. You know,
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Speaker 3: you once got on the phone with him or or
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Speaker 3: met him in a corridor or something, and you know
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Speaker 3: he'd still be talking out your twenty eight minutes later
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Speaker 3: without apparently drawing breath. You know, he could breathe through
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Speaker 3: his ears or something, and you needn't say a word.
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Speaker 3: Successful opposition politicians that I've known, like Kevin Rudd, Toney Abbot,
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Speaker 3: Josh Fredenberg, they have that relentless quality. They're full of ideas.
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Speaker 3: They come up with memorable phrases and images, and no
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Speaker 3: one in the opposition is doing any of that At
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Speaker 3: the moment. They're talking about whether they want to restructure
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Speaker 3: to be a populist party or a free market party.
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Speaker 3: But to be any kind of party, you've got to
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Speaker 3: be a great campaigner. Now, Barnaby Joyce is one of
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Speaker 3: their strong campaigners and they're not making any use of him.
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Speaker 3: But that's across the board. How can it be that
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Speaker 3: Andrew Hasty, just Center Price and Matt Canavan are on
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Speaker 3: the back bench, and that Dave Sharma, you know he
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Speaker 3: carries the oranges at halftime or something. This is like
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Speaker 3: a cricket team captain by Graham Yeller which has decided
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Speaker 3: to keep Damian Fleming and Alan Border and everybody off
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Speaker 3: the field. It's just and that reflects very badly on
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Speaker 3: the leader, but it also reflects very badly on the
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Speaker 3: people who are on the back bench. Neither side is
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Speaker 3: willing to compromise intelligently in order to be an effective opposition,
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Speaker 3: and not one of them is Charles de gaul or
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Speaker 3: Winston Churchill in disguise or anything. They just need to
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Speaker 3: learn how to work and campaign hard before they get
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Speaker 3: a fit of the vapors about what's the nature of
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Speaker 3: the party that they belong to.
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Speaker 1: Someone who does have a good radar for political talent
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Speaker 1: is Pauline Hanson. Now her One Nation Party is quite
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Speaker 1: overtly circling Barnaby Joyce, Andrew Hasty and just into numbering enterprise.
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Speaker 1: What's your sense of Pauline Hanson's role in all of
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Speaker 1: this greeg As populist right wing parties rise around the world, Well.
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Speaker 3: Hson deserves credit for her durability. Having said that, Hanson
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Speaker 3: is quite a limited populist leader. She's never except for
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Speaker 3: the first time she was elected in a fluke as
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Speaker 3: a Liberal, She's never had representation in the Lower House.
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Speaker 3: She doesn't look as though she could threaten to form government. Now.
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Speaker 3: Australia has not had a really competent populist leader or party.
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Speaker 3: I mean, Clive Palmer gave the right wing parties a
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Speaker 3: lot of money and Pauline Hanson is as near as
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Speaker 3: they've come to someone with mainstream appeal. Barnaby Joyce would
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Speaker 3: certainly be very formidable, but it's very hard to imagine
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Speaker 3: that Canavan or Hasty or Price joins One Nation and
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Speaker 3: One Nation wins an election. It's infinitely easier to take
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Speaker 3: over the Liberal Party, or to just run your policies
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Speaker 3: from within the Liberal Party would be to run a
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Speaker 3: new party. Our voting system and so makes it extremely difficult.
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Speaker 3: First of all, it's compulsory voting, so everybody votes, including
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Speaker 3: that thirty or forty percent of the electorate who pays
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Speaker 3: no attention at all, Well, somehow other you've got to
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Speaker 3: be able to talk to them. And also the populist
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Speaker 3: part is like Georgia Maloney in Italy have come to power,
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Speaker 3: have done so generally with twenty five or twenty eight
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Speaker 3: percent of the vote. Now, in a proportional representation coalition system,
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Speaker 3: you can lead a government with that. But in a
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Speaker 3: preferential system, if you're off to the right and everyone
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Speaker 3: else's center or left, then all the preferences will drain
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Speaker 3: away from you, and you might get twenty eight percent
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Speaker 3: of the vote and five percent of the seats. It's
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Speaker 3: a million times easier simply to reform the party you're in.
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Speaker 3: In the United States, the populist revolt against failed mainstream
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Speaker 3: policies occurred within the Republican Party. So Donald Trump didn't
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Speaker 3: found the America First Party or something. He just took
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Speaker 3: over the Republican Party Tony Abbott when the Howard government
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Speaker 3: was defeated and Brendan Nelson gave him a contemptible shadow portfolio. Nonetheless,
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Speaker 3: he stayed on the front bench and five minutes later
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Speaker 3: he was the leader. I am confused, beyond fathoming why
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Speaker 3: Andrew Hasey would go to the back bench. It is
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Speaker 3: a self indulgence for Matt Canavan to be on the
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Speaker 3: back bench these five years, the same with just Enter Price.
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Speaker 3: These people are depriving the nation of their talent when
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Speaker 3: we've never been more in need of leadership. And as
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Speaker 3: I say, that reflects very badly on the leader of
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Speaker 3: the party, who is meant to manage her team. It
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Speaker 3: reflects very badly on them. The Nationals have done well
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Speaker 3: in the last few elections, they've held their seats, and
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Speaker 3: yet here they are all at war with each other,
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Speaker 3: half of them in a furious sulk, with the other
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Speaker 3: half refusing to serve on the back bench, threatening to
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Speaker 3: leave and join other parties and so on. Whereas, really,
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Speaker 3: you know, fellas, get over yourselves. There is a nation
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Speaker 3: which needs governing. You know, come back to work, do
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Speaker 3: your day job. Make life hard for the government, not
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Speaker 3: for each other.
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Speaker 1: Coming up. How much blame should Susan Lee be bearing.
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Speaker 1: Susan Lee created this shadow cabinet and obviously created some
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Speaker 1: serious problems for herself by, as you say, sidelining talented people.
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Speaker 1: Then her next move was to send them something with
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Speaker 1: the grandiose title of a charter letter, including key performance
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Speaker 1: indicators and expectations for them, towing the line, Really, what's
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Speaker 1: your take on the skill with which she's actually running
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Speaker 1: this group of people?
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Speaker 3: Greg, Well, like everyone, I wanted to give her a
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Speaker 3: fair go, and I still do. She's a nice person
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Speaker 3: and so she makes a contribution. But this is surely
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Speaker 3: the dumbest act of leadership you could ever imagine. If
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Speaker 3: poor old Aposta Cooglo coached as badly as that, he
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Speaker 3: wouldn't have lasted for thirty nine days. I'll tell you
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Speaker 3: what I mean. How can you deal with someone like
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Speaker 3: to center Price, who is obviously a bit egocentric and
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Speaker 3: a bit sensitive and so on, and lose her over
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Speaker 3: some nonsensical bit of rubbish like her comments on the
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Speaker 3: Indian community. What just Centerprice set was stupid? But she
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Speaker 3: was never going to apologize. So why would you send
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Speaker 3: Alex Hawk out in order to make everything as bad
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Speaker 3: as it could possibly be. Why would you send a
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Speaker 3: charter letter to Andrew Hasty instead of talking to him
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Speaker 3: about the role that he wanted to play in immigration policy?
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Speaker 3: What is the difference between Andrew Hasty and Susan Leon
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Speaker 3: immigration policy? One is going to propose a very big
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Speaker 3: cut to immigration and the other is going to propose
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Speaker 3: a very very big cut to immigration. I mean from
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Speaker 3: two yards distance, you couldn't possibly tell them apart, how
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Speaker 3: could you give Dave Sharma such a ridiculous, nonsense non job.
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Speaker 3: Sharma effortlessly masters all media and actually in a whole
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Speaker 3: lot of policy areas, knows what he's talking about, whereas
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Speaker 3: most of these liberals can barely get through their talking points.
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Speaker 3: And he already has a profile. So why wouldn't you
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Speaker 3: say let's get the ball to Sharma quickly because he
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Speaker 3: can make yards up the middle, Instead of which you say, no, no,
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Speaker 3: he's got to stay on the sideline so that all
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Speaker 3: of our anonymous hacks who voted for me in the
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Speaker 3: leadership battle can get promoted. This is rank dumbness. This
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Speaker 3: is a weak party lacking in talent, and the leader
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Speaker 3: determined not to use the talent. That's there because it's
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Speaker 3: not from her faction, and then so mismanaging the thing
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Speaker 3: that it's likely to fall apart now. I think it'll
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Speaker 3: be a miracle if she manages to hold onto the
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Speaker 3: leadership until the next election. The deepest strategy in Australian
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Speaker 3: politics is that Josh Fredenberg didn't recontest the seat of
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Speaker 3: Ku Yong last time and win, because the opposition now
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Speaker 3: would count for something and as a result we'd have
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Speaker 3: better government because the government would be under some pressure,
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Speaker 3: whereas at the moment this opposition wouldn't blow away an
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Speaker 3: air balloon. You know, it's just completely inconsequential.
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Speaker 1: Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor. You can read
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Speaker 1: Greg's analysis, plus all the latest news, sport, politics and
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Speaker 1: business right now at the Australian dot com au