Step 1 on the way to PM: Barnaby Joyce in the House
As Padders notes on his site, The Right Aussie, National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce is considering running against on-the-nose independent MP Tony Windsor in the seat of New England at the next election. This is good news for the people of New England who have been betrayed by the Carbon Tax supporting Tony Windsor, and good news for the rest of the country in that Barnaby could have an even bigger influence on the state of the government by being in the House of Reps.
The way I see it, this is a three step plan for Barnaby.
1. Win a seat in the lower house.
2. Become leader of the Nationals.
3. Raise the National Party’s profile to the point where he becomes Prime Minister instead of the leader of the Liberal Party.
Don’t get me wrong, Tony Abbott has my full support to continue leading the coalition and to be our next Prime Minister, however I think Barnaby would be a better option if the opportunity presents itself as Barnaby has the gift of being able to be direct; the ability to say exactly what is on his mind without worrying about turning it in to political speak, and to be interesting and charismatic at the same time. Barnaby is arguably more liked by voters of all persuasions than Tony Abbott…this is different to the silly Tony Abbott V Malcolm Turnbull contest which the media keep mentioning where Malcolm’s support comes mostly from staunch Labor voters who won’t vote for him because he’s not in the Labor Party. Unlike Malcolm, Barnaby does not alienate the conservative voters, and so would be likely to attract a similar cross-section as John Howard did. The way I see it, Barnaby would be likely to attract more voters than Tony, maybe even more than John Howard did.
That said, it would take a monumental shift in numbers from the Liberal Party to the National Party for this to occur, and Tony Abbott is a perfectly good candidate…he’s just not as vocally eloquent as Barnaby. Intellectually and administratively, Tony is great, it’s just a pity that his personal approval rating is so low because it doesn’t deserve to be, and I think a lot of it comes his speech pattern which sadly leads some people to think that he’s not as smart as he is, and then leads them to believe the slander peddled by some bits of the media about him. This can all be cured by a term as Prime Minister…once people have the opportunity to see him for who he really is, based on his performance as PM, their attitudes will change…but I’m not convinced that he will ever carry as much support as Barnaby can. Put them both together though, and you have a formidable ticket.
If we can arrange a Tony and Barnaby combination for Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, with Andrew Robb as Treasurer, then I think we’ll have a country which is in the best hands it has been in for many many years. It would also be a combination which would be virtually unbeatable, especially up against the current government.
Incidentally, I touched on these topics in an SMS which I sent to 2UE’s Mike Jeffreys (whose voice was failing him) overnight. For some reason they were asking for suggestions (I think it was a caller’s idea) for animal mascots for politicians.
Morning Mike, I’d vote for Barnaby Joyce. He should be PM. As for political mascots, how about the lyrebird. I see Julia in feathers. Get well soon. Samuel CBR.
Now that I think about it, we need to find a portfolio for Senator Brett Mason as well. I get the impression that Brett could oversee almost any portfolio with wisdom and incredible competence. He is a great talent.
This all makes me long for the next federal election. It really does.
Samuel
April 19th, 2011 at 06:41am