MEMBER for New England, and Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce slammed Tony Windsor for not making his intentions clearer earlier in the running at a doorstop at Tamworth this morning
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"I mean, give me a break. If you want something go out and grab it. Make you intentions clear and be straight up and down with people. This is kind of a circus," he said.
"There's one thing I think he should've been straighter with the people from the start. I think this whole idea of I'm halfway there, I’m making up my mind, I can't quite get there, I will go on a holiday to Tasmania and come back and talk to you about it, I will run it past my wife, I'm almost there."
Mr Joyce went on to say he was focused "on the issues, not the person" as expectations for an early election draw nearer.
Mr Joyce spoke about a number of issues, including the Shenhua project on the Liverpool Plains, near Gunnedah.
"What I can say is there is no mine, the Shenhua mine is not approved. There is no BHP mine, it’s not approved. There is only one mine that I know of in the seat of New England, and that is at Werris Creek," he said.
There's one thing I think he should've been straighter with the people from the start. I think this whole idea of I'm halfway there, I’m making up my mind, I can't quite get there, I will go on a holiday to Tasmania and come back and talk to you about it, I will run it past my wife, I'm almost there
- Member for New England Barnaby Joyce
"And Mr Windsor would know more about that than anybody else.
"What I can also say, because I've been in correspondence with the Environment Minister today as I always have been, there has been no correspondence that they know of from Mr Windsor to the Commonwealth Environment Minister about the Shenhua mine.
"So how can you say you're so serious about it when you don't even write him a letter?"
Mr Joyce went on to predict a Greens and Labor Party independent alliance before New England Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein rubbished rumours he would be replaced by Upper House MP Jeremy Buckingham in the election running.
"We have had a Green Labor Party Independent alliance before. You will have a Green Labor Party Independent alliance again," Mr Joyce said.
"Mr Buckingham will present his views about Green policies. You have to remember the Greens believe in shutting down the live cattle trade, they believe in bringing back death duties, they believe in moving renewables to a point where the price of power would be just about unaffordable for the people of Armidale, for Tamworth, for the New England."
