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Barnaby’s bombshell: what Joyce is really thinking · 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 Friday, November twenty eight, twenty twenty five. The Australian
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  Speaker 1: Defense Force will have to rely on an aging, vulnerable
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  Speaker 1: commercial satellite for battlefield communications for up to eight years
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  Speaker 1: after the acting of a planned seven billion dollar system
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: in a cost cutting measure. Experts say the intelsat Is
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  Speaker 1: twenty two satellite system is no longer fit for purpose
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  Speaker 1: and risks being jammed in an electronic warfare attack. A
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  Speaker 1: concerted push by Muslim groups and the Australian Human Rights
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  Speaker 1: Commission to remove religion as a motivation for terrorist acts
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  Speaker 1: has angered Jewish bodies and legal experts, who warn the
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  Speaker 1: move will underline intelligence work while leaving communities exposed to attacks.
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  Speaker 1: Fifteen Muslim groups have made a submission to a legislative
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  Speaker 1: review say the current laws marginalize their community. One of
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  Speaker 1: Australia's best known and most colorful politicians, Barnaby Joyce, is
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  Speaker 1: quitting the National Party and maybe going to Pauline Hanson's
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  Speaker 1: One Nation at some time in the future. For now,
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  Speaker 1: he'll sit on the cross benches as an independent in
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  Speaker 1: the House of representatives. Sarah Son joins me in a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah Eison is a senior political journalist in the Australians
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  Speaker 1: Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery Bureau. Sarah, I can't help myself
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  Speaker 1: whenever I hear the name Barnaby Joyce. I hear a
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  Speaker 1: little group of girls seeing Barnaby Joyce in the tune
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  Speaker 1: of Chattanooga Chu Chu from the Sewan macaulif Skich show
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  Speaker 1: mad as Hell is Barnaby Joyce. Barnaby is an intriguing
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  Speaker 1: character in Australian politics, isn't he he is?
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  Speaker 2: I think you have that, which is what comes to mind.
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  Speaker 2: What I always have that comes to mind is when
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  Speaker 2: Barnaby became leader last time, and he's done that a
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  Speaker 2: few times. I was at the press conference. I was
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  Speaker 2: a very new journalist in Parliament and I got my
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  Speaker 2: question and I asked him, you know, Barnaby, you're the
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  Speaker 2: leader again. How long have you been planning this? And
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  Speaker 2: of course we've been writing about this for days or weeks,
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  Speaker 2: about the speculation. And Barnaby looks into my eyes and
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  Speaker 2: no word of a lie on the record. His real
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  Speaker 2: comment was, well, Sarah, if I knew this was going
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  Speaker 2: to happen today, I would have brought my hat. That
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  Speaker 2: gave me an insight very early on about exactly the
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  Speaker 2: kind of character of this man, the fact that in
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  Speaker 2: questions and in so much else in life and politics,
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  Speaker 2: he does things very differently, and he is a brand
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  Speaker 2: and a man unto himself.
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  Speaker 1: I first interviewed Barnaby Joyce when he was a News senator.
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  Speaker 1: He'd been elected as a Queensland senator actually, and he
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  Speaker 1: was famously a Queenslander back then, and I was set
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  Speaker 1: up to interview him, and he'd spoken somewhere about how
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  Speaker 1: he loves swimming in the surf and that was something
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  Speaker 1: he did every morning. And I said to him on
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  Speaker 1: the phone setting up this interview, but you're going to
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  Speaker 1: have to get in the surf for us, and we're
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  Speaker 1: going to take some photos of you swimming. And he said, okay,
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  Speaker 1: but only if you get into so as is the
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  Speaker 1: life of a Genno, I found myself at some country
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  Speaker 1: airport buying whatever swimsuit they had in the gift shop,
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  Speaker 1: so and I had to get into water with Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: The last time I had a very long interview with
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  Speaker 2: Barnaby Claire was for a really big piece on his
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  Speaker 2: battle with prostate cancer and the fact he'd gotten his
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  Speaker 2: prostate removed. And it was a great piece. It was informative,
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  Speaker 2: it was personal, but still there were certain moments that
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  Speaker 2: left things to be desired. I asked him how life
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  Speaker 2: is now, and he kind of gave me this look
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  Speaker 2: and he said, let's just say some things don't work
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  Speaker 2: like they used to.
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  Speaker 1: I think those stories will tell us really the same
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  Speaker 1: thing that he's very good at wrong footing you, Barnaby Joyce.
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  Speaker 1: He very much manages to keep his feet by ensuring
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  Speaker 1: that he's opponent, whether it's a journalist or a political opponent,
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  Speaker 1: it's never quite sure what he's going to do or
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  Speaker 1: say next. Of course, in twenty thirteen he transferred to
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  Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, representing the seat of New England,
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  Speaker 1: which is of course in New South Wales, and then
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  Speaker 1: spend a lot of years in and around the leadership
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  Speaker 1: of the National Party. He's now leaving the NATS and
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  Speaker 1: becoming an independent.
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  Speaker 2: So after thirty years with the National Party, I am
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  Speaker 2: resigning from the party and that really leads me with
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  Speaker 2: the heavy heart, and I apologize for all the hurt
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  Speaker 2: that that will cause other people.
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  Speaker 1: I really do Joyce says he might join One Nation
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  Speaker 1: in the future. I haven't made that decision yet. I've
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  Speaker 1: made a decisions too. Well, that's I don't know I've
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  Speaker 1: made that decision. He'll be one of eleven independents. There are,
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  Speaker 1: of course, ninety four seats held by the Australian Labor
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  Speaker 1: Party and forty three by the opposition. What's the point
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  Speaker 1: of being an independent in that parliament? The government can
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  Speaker 1: get its legislation through without a single independent vote.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you could say the same thing about
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  Speaker 2: if he'd joined One Nation. Obviously he wants to join
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  Speaker 2: One Nation at the next election on the Senate ticket.
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  Speaker 2: His option outside of becoming an independent would have been
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  Speaker 2: to be in One Nation's MP right, and the same
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  Speaker 2: thing as what you're saying, what's the point would be
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  Speaker 2: a similar question. And I think the reason he's done
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  Speaker 2: this is just he's really had enough and regardless of
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  Speaker 2: the timing and maybe the impact he could have within
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  Speaker 2: the NATS and the coalition, he's over it and he
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  Speaker 2: wanted to defect.
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  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson has been aggressively courting Barnaby Joyce. What would
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  Speaker 1: she see in him?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he is a firebrand politician. He has a brand,
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  Speaker 2: and that brand on pretty much every point. Maybe not
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  Speaker 2: some social policies, but points that matter, particularly climate change.
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  Speaker 2: Those views of his that he's very loud about, I
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  Speaker 2: mean they align with herbs. Barnaby is someone that people
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  Speaker 2: know his name, just like people know who Pauline Hanson is.
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  Speaker 1: Barnaby I suspect would want to be leader. He's a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a natural leader. I think he likes to
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  Speaker 1: be listened to. It's going to be difficult to have
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  Speaker 1: him in the room but not have him be the boss,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: I think people think different things about this. You're right,
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  Speaker 2: Barnaby likes to be the leader, but he is getting on.
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  Speaker 2: I spoke to Barnaby earlier this year for a big
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  Speaker 2: interview with The Australian about his battle with prostate cancer
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  Speaker 2: and how that had really brought things home for him
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  Speaker 2: when it came to his family and mortality and so on.
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  Speaker 2: So to say that he will definitely have leadership ambitions,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think we can be sure of that necessarily. Also,
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  Speaker 2: One Nation is so different to not just the NATS
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  Speaker 2: but the Coalition. I feel like he's just going to
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  Speaker 2: be given such free reign and so much prominence with
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  Speaker 2: this party, almost a pseudo leader in a way. He'll
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  Speaker 2: be up all the time. I mean, I think he
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  Speaker 2: could almost be leader and everything, but name, to be honest.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, wouldn't it have been better to quit politics
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  Speaker 1: altogether and hand the seat back to the Nats. There's
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  Speaker 1: a school of thought that if you're a member of
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  Speaker 1: the House of Representatives, you have won your seat as yourself,
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  Speaker 1: but also as a representative of your party. He was
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  Speaker 1: elected as a National's MP. Some might argue that the
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  Speaker 1: right thing to do if you decide you don't want
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  Speaker 1: to be in your party anymore is to resign your
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  Speaker 1: seat and to let a by election happen, give the
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  Speaker 1: party an opportunity to put someone else in and win
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  Speaker 1: it back. Why is Barnaby Joyce not doing that.
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  Speaker 2: Because he wants to stay on in Parliament. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: obviously he wants to write the next election on the
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  Speaker 2: Senate ticket of One Nation and just being out of
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  Speaker 2: the game for all of that time. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: that's necessarily that smart. The thing is, though, Barnaby also
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  Speaker 2: views the way that he's gone about all of this
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  Speaker 2: is actually in pretty good faith. As much as a
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  Speaker 2: lot of his colleagues disagree. So I mean, we can
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  Speaker 2: point out a heap of people who defected from their
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  Speaker 2: party and sat as an independent with no intention of
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  Speaker 2: giving the seat back. Like you can think of Andrew
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  Speaker 2: g who was a National as well. You could think
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  Speaker 2: of maybe David Van or Fatima Payment. That was something
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  Speaker 2: where they said, oh it doesn't matter, I want this
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  Speaker 2: place with a party, I want to hold it by myself.
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  Speaker 2: Barnaby doesn't want to do that. Like, yes, he is
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  Speaker 2: going to keep sitting in the New England seat for now,
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  Speaker 2: but his long term plan, which has always been pretty clear,
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  Speaker 2: is that he would run on the Senate tickt of
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  Speaker 2: one Nation, essentially handing New England back to the Nationals
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  Speaker 2: with what he says is a pretty big kitty in
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  Speaker 2: terms of how much fundraising he does and so on.
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  Speaker 2: So again, in Barnaby's view, he has done the right thing.
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  Speaker 1: There's no doubt Barnaby Joyce is talented and articulate and intelligent,
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  Speaker 1: but he's also accident prone. He tends to attract scandals.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think the Nats are glad to see the
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  Speaker 1: back of him?
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  Speaker 2: Like maybe yes and no, I suppose yes. In terms
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  Speaker 2: of scandals yes. In terms of the Nats say, no,
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  Speaker 2: one can tell Barnaby what to do. That's what a
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  Speaker 2: lot of his colleagues say when it comes to this
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  Speaker 2: latest affection. They said, we could beg and play with him,
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  Speaker 2: but if he has decided he's going to go, he's
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  Speaker 2: going to go.
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 2: In terms of his fundraising capacity, he is one of
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  Speaker 2: the top fundraisers of the Nationals outside of Matt Canavan
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  Speaker 2: and Bridget McKenzie and formerly just Enterprise. He's now with
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  Speaker 2: the Liberals and no in terms of his brand, if
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  Speaker 2: you think of the Nationals, he's probably a name that
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  Speaker 2: comes to mind straight away and that'll all go with
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  Speaker 2: Barnaby and what that will mean for the party and
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  Speaker 2: it's resourcing financially and in how much people know about
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  Speaker 2: the Nats talk about the Nets. That's a question and
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  Speaker 2: I think it is a loss in some ways to
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  Speaker 2: the party.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah Eisen is a senior political reporter with The Australian
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  Speaker 1: in Canberra. You can check out all our reporting and
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  Speaker 1: analysis right now at Beaustralian dot com dot au.