Comment

Tony Windsor
What is the purpose of Barnaby Joyce?

Barnaby Joyce has always talked a story about himself bigger than the brim on his Hopalong Cassidy hat. He is a one-man plot line, but his achievements for the people he professes to represent are slim to infinitesimal.

Even Joyce’s former campaign manager, mayor of Tamworth Russell Webb, told local television, “Barnaby can’t get anything done.”

Somehow he is being rewarded for all this. His threats to leave the Nationals have put him in the headlines he so adores and helped end his party’s commitment to net zero. In the process, he’s possibly destroyed the Coalition. Rarely has a man of such little substance had so much consequence.

If Joyce makes good on his promise and leaves politics at the next election, what would it mean for the people of New England and for Australian politics more broadly?

In my view, it is good news for New England. There is no doubt the Joyce brand has resonated with many, particularly his anti-party party stance, and there has been plenty of colour and movement to distract people. On the ground, however, very little has been happening in the seat since he was elected in 2013. He has always been more interested in politics than people, and New England was just a runway to ambition.

Next to no infrastructure has been built in the electorate in the past decade, other than the ill-thought-out relocation of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority to Armidale.

The man who promised to build 100 dams has built net zero.

In fact, the only real infrastructure changes and the jobs that go with them have been renewable energy projects, dismissed and denigrated by Joyce as eyesores and factories with little social licence.

These renewable projects have become a major part of the rationale Joyce uses to explain his estrangement from the Nationals. He claims he must act to stop this scourge moving across the landscape – to protect farmland, of course.

The sentiment is wrongheaded, but it’s also hypocritical. That’s Joyce’s two modes in one position. His criticism of renewable projects stands in stark contrast to his inaction on Santos’s coal seam gas developments on the Liverpool Plains, also within the seat of New England, which will wreak havoc on farmland.

The Liverpool Plains have some of the best soil in the world outside Ukraine and are also part of the largest subartesian groundwater resource in the Murray–Darling system. In addition, they are adjacent to the Great Artesian Basin, which is the lifeblood of 24 per cent of Australia’s landmass.

Critical issues for the local MP, one would think, but silence from the man in the hat.

It is worth noting that the windmills used to pump water from underground have been replaced by solar pumps. The windmills were never considered a blight on the horizon but a sign of progress and prosperity for the driest continent on Earth.

Joyce’s distaste for renewable energy and his silence towards coal seam gas highlights his real agenda, driven by Gina Rinehart and others. It puts the farming community in a very difficult position, one that farm leaders will need to think about very seriously.

I’m writing this at the same time Environment Minister Murray Watt tries to walk both sides of the street in revamping the nation’s dysfunctional environment laws.

What has not been well noticed is a new provision to walk back the “water trigger” Julia Gillard inserted into environment law in the dying days of her prime ministership. Watt is seeking to have it revert to the states, whose record on water is mixed, to be generous.

Last week the premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, popped up threatening the compulsory acquisition of farmland to get a gas pipeline through to the Santos-backed Narrabri Gas Project, against the determined and persistent opposition of local landholders.

The premier would well know the Santos proposal, which currently has sign-off on extracting gas above the Great Artesian Basin, needs to have subtle guarantees from government that if it begins work at Narrabri, it will have access to the Liverpool Plains in future to make the project economical. The pipeline is the head of the snake.

From Barnaby Joyce, radio silence. I wonder why?

In short then, does the farming community submit to the populist view of the world being espoused by One Nation and many in the Nationals, and that of the great climate scientist Tony Abbott, that climate change is “absolute crap”? Or do they embrace the opportunities and challenges of the next century and recognise they will experience profound benefits if Australia leads the way on renewable energy and sustainable farming systems?

Here are the raw politics of this debate.

First: the Coalition is out of government for at least two terms, longer if the Nationals continue their farce on net zero. Joyce and his cronies will have next to no chance of achieving any substantive outcomes, other than pandering to lazy media in the hope of attracting attention.

Second: China will become the dominant player in the world and will take the lead on addressing climate change, thus enhancing its economic strength as the United States declines. The popular narrative used by climate deniers – that there is no point acting if China doesn’t – will fade very quickly, and once again China will be ahead of the rest.

Third: Europe and other affluent parts of the world will demand food that is produced in countries wishing to reduce global emissions. Tariffs and other charges are already being contemplated by many countries. Like it or not, they are becoming a significant part of international trade.

If farmers fall for the siren song of Joyce, Rinehart and One Nation, they run the risk of being seen as climate deniers, and the political impacts of this stance, populist as it may be, would be massively damaging to country people. This would be their Brexit, the pain of which will be felt long after the “good idea at the time” caravan disappears over the dusty horizon.

We already have witnessed domestic political upheaval from Joyce’s anti-climate rhetoric, which has damaged the Coalition and propelled the teals and other independents into parliament. Polling suggests independents could win up to six more seats at the next election.

City dwellers have always had a somewhat romantic view of rural and remote Australia, tinged with great regard and respect for those producing good food at a good price in a relatively harsh environment and for others who live and work in those communities.

Most Australians do not live far from the coast. That situation is not changing, so the likelihood of any country ginger group taking over our parliaments is remote to say the least. We are not Trump’s America.

Regard and affection for our inland inhabitants is demonstrated by governments of all persuasions, encouraged by our metropolitan communities assisting the farm sector, and country people generally, in times of flood, fire, drought and cyclones.

I have always read it as a way of saying thanks for what you do for us and the economy in the good times.

Yet as climate change has turbocharged the weather systems, many people in Australia are more and more concerned about the future of generations to come. This will be reflected in the way they vote and the policies that will apply to regional Australia over time.

If farmers and regional people follow the Joyce and Abbott line of doing nothing about climate change, the victims of extreme climate events will be themselves, and they may no longer be able to rely on city-based governments being prepared to wear the cost.

Agriculture would risk losing the social licence it has always enjoyed.

It was interesting to watch some of the recent Tamworth defectors from the Nationals to One Nation explaining their motivation by decrying renewables and climate change as major reasons. These are the same people who would be in my office when I was in politics, asking for financial assistance any time an adverse weather event occurred.

Do they really expect that to keep happening if they deny the science and Australia’s part in the remedies on offer: cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy?

The coastal majority may well be impacted by climate change but not to the same extent as the agricultural sector. Abatements in the cities might involve more barricades on the coastline where storm surges occur, larger air-conditioning units and maybe, ironically, an extra solar panel or two, or a battery in the garage. For farmers, climate change takes down the entire business model.

Australia has led the world on dry-land farming systems and has been part of the development of renewable energy technology. We should be proud of those achievements and build on them. We should not listen to short-term, self-serving narcissists.

The Nationals are in retreat. They lost the seat of Calare at the last election, failed to pick up Bendigo despite a million-dollar campaign, and helped the Coalition lose the seat of Bullwinkel by running against the Liberals there.

Dividing communities against each other and against their best interests can only encourage more country people to look elsewhere for genuine representation.

The question is only whether that happens before the metropolitan majority declare themselves unprepared to help communities that won’t help themselves.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on November 8, 2025 as "What is the purpose of Barnaby Joyce?".

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