Barnaby Joyce had a long history of opposing climate action. His successor Michael McCormack seems to think the same way, despite climate being a growing threat to the Nationals’ rural voters.
As the National Party looks to rebuild under a new leader, it needs to embrace its minority status, establish clearly what it stands for, and remain true to those ideals.
Michael McCormack’s challenges include uniting his party behind him, making himself widely known among rural and regional voters, and forging a strong relationship with Malcolm Turnbull.
Barnaby Joyce, the larger-than-life politician, has always been a distinctive brand. But then his personal flaws and indulgences cost him all he’d worked and schemed for.
At a Nationals meeting on Monday morning, Barnaby Joyce will resign as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, but will stay on as the member for New England.
Barnaby Joyce, supposedly on ‘leave’, is out in the media as part of his fightback against those who would like him out of the deputy prime ministership.
Media reporting of the Barnaby Joyce affair would have been so much better if journalists had established substantial public-interest justifications before breaking the story.
As the crisis within the Coalition deepened, Barnaby Joyce held a news conference to respond to Malcolm Turnbull’s denunciation of his personal behaviour.
Banning relationships is likely to be ineffective and may result in disengagement, secrecy and resentment by employees of the encroachment of employment policies into genuinely private matters.