Good news from the Tamworth region
Actually, good might not be strong enough a word, so I think I’ll use “fantastic” instead.
Barnaby Joyce will be the National Party’s candidate for the federal seat of New England. It’s a reasonable assumption that he should defeat incumbent MP Tony Windsor, so this clears the way for Barnaby to eventually take over the leadership of the National Party, and be the Deputy Prime Minister in a future Liberal/National coalition government.
BARNABY Joyce is poised to stand unopposed as the Nationals candidate in New England, after his two chief rivals for preselection indicated they were unlikely to run for the northern NSW seat currently held by Labor-leaning independent Tony Windsor.
Nominations to stand as the party’s candidate will close tomorrow afternoon, after the previous candidate, former NSW MP Richard Torbay, was expelled from the party and reported to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Speaking to The Australian yesterday, Senator Joyce’s key potential opponent for preselection, National Farmers Federation president Jock Laurie, said he “would be surprised” if his name were among those submitted for consideration.
[..]
Senator Joyce’s other potential rival, Keith Perrett, said he was “pretty sure” he would not run, because it could force his resignation as chairman of the government’s Grain Research and Development Corporation.
[..]
Senator Joyce, 45, a New England native who represents Queensland in the Senate, has indicated he will seek the Nationals leadership – and potentially the deputy prime ministership – if current leader Warren Truss, 64, becomes “sick of the job and resigns”.
(h/t Jared Owens writing for The Australian
Barnaby has been a fantastic Senator for Queensland, representing the interests of Queensland and conservatives in general very well. He has been quite outspoken over the years, but is more-often-than-not correct when he makes a statement which the media thinks is “a bit out there”. One such occasion which springs to mind is when he warned Australians that the United States, under the stewardship of Barack Obama and his administration of dubious competence, were at serious risk of having their credit rating downgraded. This was at a time when anybody who had been paying attention to the situation in the US, and not just the talking points and dodgy statistics of the Obama administration, knew that this was true, but the media and Wayne Swan laughed at him and ridiculed him for it. A few months later Barnaby was proven correct…he did not get an apology or acknowledgement from those who ridiculed him.
It was my pleasure to meet Barnaby at the Convoy Of No Confidence protest against the carbon dioxide tax in 2011.
It would, in my view, be a wholly positive thing, and a privilege, for Australia to have Baranby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister. I wish him all the best of luck with his campaign in New England, assuming that he does indeed get preselected there.
Samuel
2 comments April 1st, 2013 at 11:24am