INDEPENDENT candidate for New England Tony Windsor has weighed in over criticism surrounding comments made by Barnaby Joyce drawing a link between the ban on live exports and an increase in asylum seekers arriving on boats to Australia.

The member for New England and Deputy Prime Minister made the comments during a political debate in Goulburn on Wednesday night, in which Mr Joyce suggested there was a link between the temporary ban on live exports and an influx of asylum seekers in 2011.

“Might I remind you that when we closed down the live animal export industry, it was around about the same time that we started seeing a lot of people arriving in boats in Australia,” Mr Joyce stated.

In Tamworth yesterday morning, Mr Windsor called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to remove Mr Joyce from making comment on international affairs, amid concerns that the Indonesian government could retaliate by decreasing current live export quotas.

He said Mr Joyce’s comments were not in line with the motion put forward by The Nationals’ John Cobb, who said the party had agreed with the ban on live exports at the time.

“This is an example of short-term, opportunistic politics, trying to relate three separate issues from Indonesia, the diplomatic areas there and the live export ban, which was temporary for a month, along with the minority parliament, “Mr Windsor said.

“What Mr Joyce did last night was prove that he is unfit to be in a leader’s debate, he’s unfit to be a leader and he has insulted Indonesia, our nearest neighbour.

“(There are) 220 million people and we need those people for the future.

“They are going to be very important, not only in terms of the live cattle trade but in terms of trade in total.”

Mr Windsor said he had faith Mr Turnbull could resolve the issue diplomatically but was concerned the damage had already been done.

“Hopefully Prime Minister Turnbull can clean up the mess. If Indonesia is offended by this, they may well retaliate – not by boats, but it will be in a reduction in the live export quotas, to send a message to Australia that they won’t be trivialised.

“This is desperate politics about what is going on in this seat and what is going on in the nation. It is not what a diplomatic minister and a deputy prime minister would be saying about relations with our nearest neighbour.

“These people won’t keep taking insults from us. We need a government that’s stable and can deal with Indonesia on a diplomatic level. Malcolm Turnbull can do that, but I think the first thing he needs to do is say to his deputy, ‘We don’t need you in international affairs, go back and do some work in your electorate and leave the real work in terms of the nation to us’.”