"This is a clock" "This is a famous picture" "and look over here", pointing to a picture of Bjelke Petersen hanging on the wall "now this bloke built dams, lots of them", "and over here on this desk is correspondence and reports pertinent to the drought". "I am going to read you some letters from the Prime Minister" but he does not get past the first line. Pointing to papers on his 'desk', he exclaims: "Look at this, yet another letter from the Prime Minister, and on and on and on and on and on it goes", implying that there are "an awful lot" of them" and claiming that "there is no canine in the country capable of eating this much paperwork". "So, stop saying I never sent off reports".

Sorry Barnaby. No can do. For me, that's not enough evidence. Simply publishing your reports, if they exist, would do the trick though.

To my mind it is difficult to follow the logic or the relevance of the contents of Barnaby's video. It contains absolutely no evidence that he produced any meaningful or strategically useful reports on drought strategy management or recovery. It does suggest that the PM sends him correspondence, although it is not clear what the correspondence is actually about. It does suggest that Joyce drew the attention of the PM to a National Drought support strategy formulated in 2009 and that he visited some drought affected areas.

What it does not say, is that during his nine month appointment, according to MP travel records, Joyce Claimed $675,000 in expenses, spent less than three weeks on the ground and was allocated two extra staff at an estimated cost of $200,000. Very expensive SMS's!

We know why Barnaby Joyce was appointed a Special Drought Envoy. We know that droughts are becoming more frequent and intense and current govt. policies, or lack of them, are incapable of reducing their frequency or intensity.

Both Joyce and the government need to be held accountable lest they continue to be regarded as nothing more than laughing stock.

Jan Kleeman, Donald Creek