One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce says One Nation and the Coalition are talking about supporting each other in a minority government. Photo: Barnaby Joyce/Instagram.
Barnaby Joyce made a bold statement this week that he spoke to some “very, very senior Liberals” as recently as Tuesday (22 September) about One Nation and the Coalition helping each other out in the event of a hung parliament after the next federal election.
He said both parties were discussing guaranteeing supply and confidence in a minority government.
When pressed, he wouldn’t say who he was talking to, but he was adamant the talks were ongoing.
“I don’t know whether I should disclose who I was speaking to about it, but it’s very senior and, let’s say, with the absolute appropriate people to speak to about this,” he said during a media interview Tuesday afternoon.
And in another interview, Joyce said: “Of course we are having conversations, and everybody knows quite obviously that there’s no prospect in current polling that the Coalition can form government, nor can One Nation.
“And obviously, it’s not about becoming a coalition. We don’t want to be in a coalition, to be quite frank. But there will be a discussion.”
Here’s more of his open sharing.
“So, either we would offer supply and confidence to the Coalition, obviously on the premise of solid policy outcomes that we would want [to] happen, and we would want there to be clear acknowledgment that they are our policy outcomes.
“We’d have a regimen then of looking at legislation as they came forward.
“And, like always, we would expect the same deal if we had greater numbers than the Coalition.”
Coalition frontbenchers and backbenchers alike immediately and repeatedly dismissed Barnaby’s remarks.
Let’s take a look at a few of those responses.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor outright denied the Liberals are in talks with One Nation about offering confidence and supply to a future minority government.
“No,” Mr Taylor said when asked during a media conference if he has been talking with One Nation on the subject.
“And I gave no authority to anyone else to have that conversation.”
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume said pretty much the same when asked about it.
“I have absolutely no idea exactly what it is that he is discussing or who he is discussing it with,” she said of Joyce.
“Perhaps he could be a little more explicit about that. I am pretty sure that this is Barnaby clutching at straws.
“I don’t know what Barnaby’s motives are. Perhaps he’s got some sort of post-purchase dissonance moving to One Nation. I can understand that.”
Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson was at pains to point out that both Mr Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan had denied any such talks between them and One Nation.
Wilson described it as a figment of Joyce’s imagination.
“Barnaby had one story in his interview. He had a different story by the end of the interview,” he said.
“He can’t name the people who are involved. I know that Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan have confirmed that that’s not the case … I get that he’s got regrets about joining One Nation. I do understand that. After betraying his community, his party, and his leader, I understand that.”
That, of course, invited a response from Joyce that he didn’t want to be in any coalition that Wilson was a member of anyway, because he, Wilson, was a “clown” who wants to be treasurer, yet he “can’t count”.
The number Joyce was referring to was the one needed to win a majority government, which neither the Coalition nor One Nation currently has on its own, if the polls are anything to go by.
But here’s the thing – despite all the Coalition denials, Barnaby is most likely telling the truth.
Enter Tony Abbott.
There’s more than a decent chance that the “very, very senior Liberals” Joyce is talking to about minority government support are the former Liberal prime minister and his closest confidants (Peta Credlin, anyone?)
Joyce served on Abbott’s frontbench, and the pair went on to share the Coalition backbench after their falls from grace.
To say they’re mates might be pushing it, but they definitely fall on the same page over a great deal of policy positions and the strategies needed to see them implemented.
Abbott is the Liberal Party’s current national president and already suggested the Coalition should swap preferences with One Nation at the next election if that’s what it takes to win it.
The former PM is not a figurehead party president. He’s pulling strings.
And it would be good tactics not to inform Taylor et al about any discussions with Barnaby and/or One Nation.
It gives the Coalition’s parliamentary leadership plausible deniability in the face of Labor’s campaign to publicly lump the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation into one right-wing basket.
That’s just one theory. Talks between Joyce and Abbott might not actually be happening.
But it’s a sure bet that One Nation and the Coalition are indeed game-planning the election.
Barnaby said so.
