{"id":226828,"date":"2025-10-20T06:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226828\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T06:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:37:09","slug":"new-england-voters-divided-by-barnaby-joyces-flirtation-with-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226828\/","title":{"rendered":"New England voters divided by Barnaby Joyce’s flirtation with One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voters in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate seem largely unfazed by his apparent flirtation with One Nation<\/a> and decision not to recontest the seat of New England at the next election.<\/p>\n

The former Nationals leader said in a statement over the weekend<\/a> that his relationship with the party’s current leadership had, “like a sadness in some marriages”, irreparably broken down.<\/p>\n

Kootingal resident Darrell Henry said Mr Joyce had been a good local member and deserved the opportunity to determine his own political future.<\/p>\n

“He is controversial sometimes, he says what he thinks and that’s going to get a bit of reaction from people, but I don’t mind a bit of controversy,” Mr Henry said.<\/p>\n

“If he wants to go and join One Nation \u2026 I don’t have a problem with that either.”\"An<\/p>\n

Darrell Henry says Barnaby Joyce has been a good local member for New England. (ABC New England North West: James Paras)<\/p>\n

Alison McSkimming said Mr Joyce was a good representative for the region.<\/p>\n

“Coming from a farming background, he does speak out for farmers,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[If] it gives him more of a voice leaving the Nationals, good on him.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kim Thomas would love Barnaby Joyce to join One Nation. (ABC New England: James Paras)<\/p>\n

Kim Thomas, from Retreat north of Tamworth, has been a supporter of One Nation since 1998 and welcomed the prospect of Mr Joyce joining the party.<\/p>\n

“It would be great,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I love Barnaby \u2026 no matter what you think of him, he is always for the people.”<\/p>\n

But not all New England voters were happy about the situation.<\/p>\n

Long-time Tamworth resident Narina Donnelly said the local MP was making a poor choice.<\/p>\n

“He’s been elected to represent this area, and he’s choosing his own career over the representation of New England,” Ms Donnelly said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Narina Donnelly believes Barnaby Joyce is putting his career first. (ABC New England North West: Jonathan Hawes)<\/p>\n

“I think we might get back to the idea that anyone can win this electorate as long as they’re far enough right wing.”<\/p>\n

Nicholas Ryan was not sure if voters would continue to support Mr Joyce if he were to join a different party.<\/p>\n

“Someone said to me they could have put up a pumpkin for the Nationals and they would have got in,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know who the Nationals are going to put up after Barnaby \u2026 [but] it’s still pretty strong Nationals territory.”<\/p>\n

At this year’s federal election, Mr Joyce polled more than 52 per cent of the primary vote<\/a> compared to One Nation on almost 10 per cent.<\/p>\n

Mr Joyce’s primary vote was stable compared to previous years, while One Nation’s more than doubled.<\/p>\n

Tamworth Nationals chair defects<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Tamworth Nationals branch chair Steven Coxhead left the party to join One Nation.<\/p>\n

“The Nationals have failed to adequately represent the constituents of not only Tamworth, but regional and rural NSW,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority of the Nationals’ membership voted against net zero at the recent Nationals state conference in Coffs Harbour, yet the hierarchy of the party [is] seemingly unwilling to walk away from it.<\/p>\n

“The Liberals are chasing the teal votes, the inner-city votes, they are competing with Labor for those votes and don’t want adverse headlines.”<\/p>\n

Mr Coxhead said 10 other members of the Nationals branch in Tamworth joined One Nation with him.<\/p>\n

He said he had also asked Mr Joyce to consider joining the party.<\/p>\n

“[Mr Joyce] is very much in the same vein as Pauline Hanson, he says things that a lot of people are thinking,” Mr Coxhead said.<\/p>\n

“I fully understand if he wants to retire, work his farm and have a happy life outside of the public gaze and scrutiny, but on the other side of the coin, if he wanted to join One Nation, we’d welcome him with open arms.<\/p>\n

“I honestly think that the New England and politics more broadly will miss Barnaby Joyce.”<\/p>\n

Federal president supports Joyce<\/p>\n

Nationals federal president Kay Hull said she was comfortable with Mr Joyce’s decision.<\/p>\n

“He’s done the right thing,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He has now made the decision he’s been grappling with for some time.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Kay Hull says the Nationals are a strong and resilient party.\u00a0 (AAP: Alan Porritt\/file photo)<\/p>\n

Ms Hull said the party remained strong.<\/p>\n

“We have retained all of our seats since 2007. No other party can say that. We’re strong, we’re resilient,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They’ve been talking about The Nationals’ demise for 105 years; we are the second-longest [running] party in Australia.<\/p>\n

“We’re still here, we’re strong, we’re resilient and we will never let the people of rural, regional and remote Australia down.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voters in Barnaby Joyce’s electorate seem largely unfazed by his apparent flirtation with One Nation and decision not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68825,6485,3786,43,40589,19182,5384,35441,44,60504,84,137124,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-226828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-barnaby-joyce","9":"tag-elections","10":"tag-government","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-nationals","13":"tag-net-zero","14":"tag-new-england","15":"tag-new-england-north-west","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-one-nation","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-tamworth","20":"tag-top-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topnews","23":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}