It is not a consideration of “skeletons in the closet ”nor “paperwork that might not be correct” that should determine Barnaby Joyce’s pre-selection for candidacy at the next election but his overall integrity, moral compass and performance as a parliamentarian to date.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Notable rural women who hate hypocrisy, are fed up with Barnaby for a range of reasons reflective of his poor moral compass while prominent rural advocates such as “Anyone But Nats for regional NSW”, are furious that the Nats, especially Barnaby, are mainly representing big miners, CSG industry, the destructive Narrabri Gas project and notorious water thieves and are devoid of any real policies that benefit rural communities.
Barnaby is sometimes described in parliamentary circles as the worst Agriculture Minister this country has ever had and there is evidence to support this notion:
- The productivity Commission Review report [Sep 2018] revealed that the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan is under fire for poor governance, lagging behind schedule, lack of transparency and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars all under the watch of Joyce. Serious questions remain as to why he signed off on purchases of water at highly inflated prices that netted big irrigators millions of dollars in profit for unsecured or so called ”ghost water”
- Sacking of Ag Dept Secretary in 2015 when he told Joyce he “no longer had confidence in his capacity to resolve matters relating to integrity” with him and subsequent Ministerial Hansard doctoring allegations.
- Huge delays in release of the 2015 Agriculture White Paper, due to push backs from politicians and public servants about the wacky, poorly thought out ideas being promoted by Barnaby [including multi-peril crop insurance ] but without detail and no overall strategic plan for the Agriculture sector.
- The recently released Moss Review revealed abject policy failure and budget saving measures which destroyed the capacity of the Ag Dept. in relation to live sheep export matters of concern and exposed a culture of favours to industry and profits, over animal welfare standards; a culture coming from the top [Barnaby Joyce].
- Failure to consider climate change and its connectivity to drought and policies needed to help mitigate future droughts.
Barnaby continually claims undue credit for higher commodity prices, embellishes the scope of policy initiatives and incessantly prattles on about building dams and more dams which he knows for some very good reasons will never be built but he is telling the public what they want to hear.
In erratic parliamentary performances he has:
- Opposed safe zones for women around abortion clinics
- Opposed the bill to allow same sex marriage
- Called for a national debate on Capital Punishment in Australia
- Lobbied to prioritise Christian refugees above all other faiths
- Advocated to allow MPs to hire their spouses, partners or relatives, denying any conflict of interests
- Argued strongly against a banking royal commission
- Supported reducing environmental water allocations and stealing water from the environment for big irrigation lobbyists to get their export crops to completion in drought.
- Stated that when Minister for Ag and Water Resources that govt. would not intervene regarding accusations of water theft
- Advocated disregarding legal requirements when they don’t suit [which of course he can’t do without changing Acts of Parliament].
- Had species taken off the critically endangered species list to boost logging of forests
How many more reasons does the National Party need?
Jan Kleeman
Donald Creek
