MP confirms call with Pauline Hanson amid One Nation rumours
“People are waking up, realizing that Australia is deindustrialising, fragmenting, destroying the environment, seemingly trying to protect it with no purpose on climate change, it’s just madness.
“I guess on this one One Nation isn’t barking wildly like the others.”
This imprint revealed on Friday that Joyce was in advanced talks with Hanson about joining forces. Multiple sources said the plan was for the 58-year-old member of the New England region in northern NSW to eventually run for One Nation in the Senate and one day take over the party leadership.
Hanson said on Sunday that Joyce’s potential move could cause Coalition MPs concerned about his immigration and climate change targets to flee him, putting forward Matt Canavan, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Colin Boyce as options.
“I think if Barnaby moves, it will encourage some of the others to say that this is a movement that’s happening and that’s what we’re advocating for,” he said.
Joyce refused to say whether he had spoken to other colleagues about leaving the Nationals and did not make a prediction on whether MPs would go.
“That’s something for them to decide,” Joyce said. “And I won’t speak for them.”
Another former Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, said: Radio National Breakfast He said Joyce’s reputation would be “somewhat damaged” if he left for Hanson’s party, and urged his colleague not to abandon volunteers who have been campaigning for him for years.
Former party leaders, who have previously had a rocky relationship, joined forces earlier this year to force the National Party to abandon its net zero target.
Opposition Leader Susan Ley.Credit: Eamon Gallagher
Against the backdrop of further domestic drama, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley will deliver a second economic vision speech, pledging to offer tax cuts at the next election, without specifying details, after controversially blocking Labor’s proposed cuts in May.
Ley will also hint at the government’s loosening of pro-union workplace laws, which the Dutton opposition has left alone.
“The work of the shadow ministry will therefore be based on two main objectives: lower personal
income taxes and budget repair,” he will tell the conservative Center for Independent Studies in Sydney today.
“We will take action to ensure intergenerational justice. Millennials and Generation Z are Australia’s new forgotten generation.”
Ley made another speech last month indicating his focus on fiscal restraint after the opposition under Peter Dutton was criticized for abandoning Liberal orthodoxy towards smaller government.
