Category Archives: Barnaby Joyce

Christmas hams, candles and a ‘priceless’ 75cm statue: what Australia’s politicians are being gifted

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Disclosures include a custom turntable from Joe Biden and a statue depicting Julian Hill on a gold armchair gifted by a local supporter

The Labor MP Julian Hill’s declaration of a 75-centimetre statue of himself, given by a constituent, has shone a light on the interesting – and sometimes weird – world of political disclosures and gifts.

Gifts ranging from bottles of wine to customised vinyl record turntables, free concert tickets to flight upgrades are accepted and dutifully recorded on the federal politicians’ publicly-available register of interests, as required under parliamentary rules.

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Australia politics live: Steven Miles says Suncorp Stadium will host Brisbane Olympics opening and closing ceremonies

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Follow the day’s news live

‘There’ll be a lot of people grieving today’

Both Barnaby Joyce and Tanya Plibersek were asked about soldier Jack Fitzgibbon, the son of former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

The Fitzgibbon family are a family of honour. Jack died in service to our nation. Joel has served our nation. The family will be absolutely grieving. We hope and pray Jack is with our maker, give comfort to them. You’ve seen the Fitzgibbons, you’ve watched them on television. They’re a great family. He is also my mate. We’ll turn up and give what support we can to Jack’s family.

It’s just the worst thing that any parent can imagine and so our hearts go out to Joel and Diane and their family and the friends and comrades that Jack had in the service as well. We know there’ll be a lot of people grieving today.

Well, first of all, of course it’s not on government devices in Australia either. We’ve got a ban here in Australia on government devices. But there are 8.5 million Australians who are using it.

We’ll take the advice of our security and intelligence agencies on anything we need to do around TikTok. I think people should be careful of the data that they put online in general. Like I say, if the security and intelligence agencies give us advice on TikTok, we’ll take it.

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Nationals deputy leader Perin Davey could face official complaint over apparent slurring in Senate

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Exclusive: Davey says she is aware complaint may be lodged, which could lead to her party membership being cancelled or suspended if upheld

The Nationals’ deputy leader, Perin Davey, is facing the prospect of an official complaint from a party member over an incident in which she slurred and stumbled over words in a Senate hearing.

According to the NSW Nationals’ constitution, complaints that a member’s “general behaviour, public utterances, or writings, have been such as to bring or attempt to bring discredit or undue embarrassment to the party” can be grounds to cancel or suspend their membership.

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Barnaby Joyce says he has given up alcohol for Lent as Perin Davey admits having two drinks before Senate hearing

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New England MP accuses opponents of exploiting issue for political gain, while footage emerges of deputy Nationals leader appearing to slur her words

Barnaby Joyce says he’s giving up alcohol for Lent while accusing political opponents of seeking to exploit the issue of parliamentarians’ consumption of alcohol, as the conduct of politicians again falls under the spotlight.

The shadow veterans affairs minister made the comments on Monday after the deputy Nationals leader, Perin Davey, admitted she had two drinks before a Senate committee hearing in which she appeared to slur and stumble over words.

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Australia news live: Dutton says reports of WA boat arrival ‘disturbing’; Barnaby Joyce denies drinking problem

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Opposition leader calls on home affairs minister Clare O’Neil to provide explanation on whether government has ‘lost control’ of borders. Follow the day’s news live

About 400 requests for assistance remaining in Victoria, SES says

The Victorian state emergency service says there are about 400 active requests for assistance remaining, after the extreme weather earlier this week.

We’re making good progress restoring services following the severe storms in Victoria, with more than 90% of our mobile sites now back online.

Many of our network sites have back up power that kept services running after the storms hit, but that back-up power may not last during extended power outages.

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Albanese calls on Coalition to explain Barnaby Joyce footpath incident

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Prime minister says ‘there needs to be an explanation’ after former deputy prime minister was seen lying on a Canberra street swearing into his phone

The prime minister has called for the Coalition leadership to explain the actions of former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who was last week filmed lying on a Canberra footpath having a phone conversation.

Guardian Australia understands Joyce won’t attend the Nationals party room meeting scheduled for Monday.

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Former Australian deputy PM Barnaby Joyce says official JFK assassination findings didn’t ‘stack up’

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Coalition MP says he has spent ‘an awful lot of time’ researching topic, and official theory that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is ‘implausible’

The former deputy prime minister and Coalition frontbencher Barnaby Joyce claims the official narrative of the assassination of US president John F Kennedy 60 years ago “doesn’t stack up”, saying he didn’t believe the findings of the Warren commission that only one shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was involved and acted alone.

The member for New England said he had devoted “an awful lot of time” to researching the incident, saying his own experience using firearms led him to believe that a rifle shot from the book depository – the official conclusion of the 1964 report into Kennedy’s death – was “implausible”.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene unite in push to free Julian Assange

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Maga Republican and leftwing Democrat among 16 US Congress members lobbying Joe Biden to drop extradition attempts against WikiLeaks founder

Maga Republican and fierce Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene and leftwing Democratic firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have found common ground in freeing Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The pair are among 16 members of the US Congress who have written directly to president Joe Biden urging the United States to drop its extradition attempts against Assange and halt any prosecutorial proceedings immediately.

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Barnaby Joyce-backed push to strike net zero emissions target from Nationals policy fails

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Amended motion calls on party to ‘take a practical approach to lowering carbon emissions as a substantive move to nuclear power is made’

A Barnaby Joyce-backed push to strip net zero from the Nationals’ policy platform has effectively been defeated as the former leader’s shadow cabinet position is brought into question.

Joyce backed a motion to strip net zero emissions by 2050 from the party platform at its national conference in Canberra on Saturday.

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Peter Dutton rejects Nationals push to overturn commitment to net zero

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Liberal leader says Coalition ‘committed’ to policy after Barnaby Joyce labelled its cost ‘utterly untenable’

Peter Dutton has rejected a push within the Nationals to overturn the commitment to net zero by 2050, warning the Coalition “won’t be departing” from the policy after Barnaby Joyce labelled the cost “utterly untenable”.

The Liberal leader told Radio National on Friday he was not concerned by Joyce’s intervention because there is “strong support for net zero” within the Coalition for the policy he had “recommitted to”.

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Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt oppose total ban of online gambling ads

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National party MPs argue it is a ‘legitimate industry’ and that it should be ‘managed appropriately’ to avoid commercial stations suffering

National party MPs Barnaby Joyce and Keith Pitt have warned against a total ban on online gambling ads, arguing it is a “legitimate industry” that can be managed with less extensive measures.

The pair are the first federal MPs to caution against the plan proposed by a parliamentary inquiry, which has raised concerns from television broadcasters about loss of gambling ad revenue.

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Barnaby Joyce apologised to Peter Dutton for breaking ranks over the Biloela family

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A letter written at the time reveals that Joyce told Dutton he could not justify deporting the Murugappan family, whose two children were born in Australia

Barnaby Joyce appears to have blindsided Peter Dutton with his support for the Murugappan family to stay in Australia, linking his position to his pro-life stance, a newly-released letter reveals.

Joyce’s letter to Dutton in September 2019 includes both an apology to the then home affairs minister for not giving him more notice and an explanation he believes the family’s children should be able to stay because “a child has rights before they are born and after”.

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Barnaby Joyce says future Taiwan visits should include officials or even ministers

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Former deputy prime minister thinks it ‘could be smart’ for future delegations to be widened, despite risk of angering China

Future Australian parliamentary visits to Taiwan should include government officials or even ministers, Barnaby Joyce has said after meeting with Taiwan’s president.

Joyce, the former deputy prime minister and former deputy chair of the national security committee, is among a cross-party group of federal politicians visiting Taiwan this week.

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Barnaby Joyce called on to apologise for Nazi Germany comparisons over Indigenous voice

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Nationals MP said he was concerned about the government wanting to ‘reinsert racial distinctions’ into the constitution

Barnaby Joyce has been accused of making “ahistorical comparisons to Nazi Germany” in an interview about the Indigenous voice to parliament, with Labor MP Josh Burns calling on the former deputy prime minister to apologise.

Joyce stood by his comments, made in a Sky News interview, saying he was concerned about the government wanting to “reinsert racial distinctions” into the constitution. But a leading civil rights and Holocaust expert chided the National party MP for his remarks.

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Barnaby Joyce: the most perplexing contradictions in his account of the Morrison ministry scandal

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Repeated questioning of Nationals leader over when he knew about Morrison taking on resources portfolio provided confusing results

Barnaby Joyce was asked on Sunday what he knew, didn’t know and didn’t want to know about Scott Morrison’s additional powers.

The answers were hard to follow, to say the least. The former deputy prime minister said he kinda knew Morrison had appointed himself as resources minister and taken over the decision of the controversial Pep-11 gas licence off the NSW coast, but he also didn’t know.

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Barnaby Joyce says Scott Morrison never explicitly said he was also resources minister despite using special powers

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Former Nationals leader says he did not want to ‘go into bat’ on the increased powers out of concern Nationals may lose previously negotiated gains

Barnaby Joyce said Scott Morrison never explicitly told him he had sworn himself in as resources minister despite the former prime minister exercising special powers associated with the role, as prime minister Anthony Albanese said his predecessor’s actions could be subject to further inquiries.

In a testy interview, Joyce also told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday that he did not want to “go into bat” on the apparent increased powers because he believed the Nationals risked losing previously negotiated gains.

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Joyce says Qantas ‘not good enough’ in apology over airport chaos – as it happened

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Morrison didn’t call finance minister to apologise, Maiden says

There’s been an interesting point from Samantha Maiden on the ABC Insiders panel about the timeline of events between former PM Scott Morrison and his former finance minister Mathias Cormann.

Scott Morrison is really good at painting word images, right, and if you listened to that press conference this week, would you not get the impression that he called Mathias Cormann to apologise and he had called Josh? Would that be the impression you were left with?

That’s not what happened. What happened was Mathias Cormann calls Morrison on the weekend. He picks up The Weekend Australian, he reads the article, he comes to the international language of WTF and goes: “What happened here?”

Clearly you need to look at the response of all governments.

Primarily, it will be about the federal government. That’s what we have responsibility for, but the interaction between the levels of government of course, were critical to the response to the Covid pandemic.

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Dungowan Dam likely dead in the water after Infrastructure Australia deems proposal low priority

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Costs of dam project championed by Barnaby Joyce to secure water for Tamworth ‘far outweigh the benefits’, assessment says

The proposal to build a new Dungowan Dam in Barnaby Joyce’s seat of New England at a cost of $1.27bn appears to be dead after Infrastructure Australia delivered a scathing assessment.

The project, which was promoted by the former National party leader as a way to secure the water supply for Tamworth, in New South Wales, had originally been costed at $433m, with the Morrison government promising to contribute $242m.

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Anthony Albanese seeks legal advice over reports Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into ministry roles

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Reports claim former prime minister’s senior cabinet colleagues were unaware he allegedly swore himself into three ministry positions

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is seeking legal advice over reports his predecessor Scott Morrison secretly swore himself into three ministry positions while in government, a fact that was allegedly concealed even from senior cabinet colleagues.

Morrison’s deputy PM Barnaby Joyce described the reportedly secretive arrangements, allegedly made without the input of the governor general, as “very bad practice”, while Labor minister Bill Shorten questioned whether the former leader had a “messianic complex”.

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Peter Dutton sidelines Scott Morrison allies in shadow cabinet as Nationals take six spots

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Angus Taylor becomes shadow treasurer, but Alex Hawke gets no position in a shadow cabinet with 10 women

Allies of Scott Morrison have been dumped from the shadow cabinet and senior conservatives promoted in a reshuffle stamping Peter Dutton’s mark on the Liberal party.

Dutton and the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, announced the shadow ministry in Brisbane on Sunday, revealing it will include 10 women, with six Nationals in cabinet.

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