Barnaby Joyce should remain in his “natural home” as a member of the National Party, but there is no intention to remove him from the party after he dined with Pauline Hanson last night, former leader Michael McCormack has said.
“The National Party’s not about to tell somebody they’re not welcome to the party. And David Littleproud would not do that,” McCormack told journalists at Parliament House.
“It’s not a matter of expelling somebody from the party. I mean, it’s a matter of saying to Barnaby, you’re always welcome. Come back. That your natural home is with the Nationals,” the Riverina MP said.
Nationals MP Michael McCormack.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Joyce has been floating a potential defection to One Nation, and last night had a steak dinner with Hanson in her Parliament House office, just hours after she was suspended from the Senate chamber for wearing a burqa.
“You’re only a custodian of position for as long as the people in your electorate [want], the local people who send you to do the job for them, and when they’re paying high power prices, when they’ve got cost of living crisis, they don’t want you to be talking about yourself,” McCormack said.
“Quite frankly, they don’t care whether you’re having a sandwich, steak sandwich date with Pauline Hanson, who’s just done a burqa stunt. They want you to be concentrating on, on the things, the issues that matter most to them. And that’s what being a parliamentarian is all about.”