Barnaby Joyce

The Honourable Barnaby Joyce MP
Minister for Agriculture
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 September 2013
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott
Preceded by	Joel Fitzgibbon
Deputy Leader of the National Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 September 2013
Leader	Warren Truss
Preceded by	Nigel Scullion
Senator for Queensland
In office 1 July 2005 – 8 August 2013
Preceded by	Len Harris
Succeeded by	Barry O'Sullivan
Member of the Australian Parliament for New England
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 September 2013
Preceded by	Tony Windsor
Personal details
Born	(1967-04-17) 17 April 1967 Tamworth, New South Wales
Political party	National Party (Federal) Liberal National Party (State)
Spouse(s)	Natalie Joyce
Alma mater	University of New England (B.C.A.)
Profession	Accountant, politician
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]
Military service
Service/branch	Australian Army Reserve
Years of service	1994–99
Unit	Royal Queensland Regiment

Barnaby Thomas Gerald Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician, who is currently the Minister for Agriculture in the Abbott Ministry, having been sworn in on 18 September 2013.^[2]

Joyce was a member of the Australian Senate representing the state of Queensland from July 2005 until August 2013. He represented the National Party of Australia until the Queensland divisions of the Liberal and National parties merged into the Liberal National Party of Queensland in 2008, although he remained Leader of the National Party in the Senate. He crossed the floor nineteen times under the Howard coalition government.^[3] On 17 September 2008, Joyce succeeded Nigel Scullion as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate.^[4]

In April 2013 Joyce was preselected by the National Party to contest the House of Representatives seat of New England in New South Wales at the September 2013 election. He resigned from the Senate on 8 August 2013.^[5] He easily won New England for the Nationals in the biggest swing in Australian political history and is now on a margin of 21.1% and was then elected deputy leader of the Nationals. His ranking is number seven in the Australian Cabinet.

Early life

His father, James Joyce, was born in New Zealand, and moved to Australia to study veterinary science at the University of Sydney, where he met Joyce's mother, Marie, and they made their living as farmers.^[6]

Barnaby Joyce was born in Tamworth, New South Wales and raised in Woolbrook.^[7] One of six children from a sheep-and-cattle farming family,^[6] he attended St Ignatius' College, Riverview, in Sydney. He graduated with a commerce degree from the University of New England in Armidale,^[6] and served in the Australian Army Reserve from 1994–99. At university Joyce met his wife, Natalie, and they married in 1993. After graduating, Joyce moved around northern New South Wales and Queensland, and at one point worked as a bouncer.^[6] Joyce worked in the accounting profession before entering Parliament and is a Fellow of CPA Australia. Joyce and his wife have four daughters and live in St George in western Queensland, where Joyce had an accounting business.^[6]

Political views

Social issues

Joyce took offense at a pamphlet handed out by Family First candidate Danny Nalliah, which identified bottle shops, brothels, masonic lodges, mosques, and Hindu and Buddhist temples as "strongholds of Satan", and said that he did not want the preferences of such a party. Joyce criticised the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and saying that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with".^[8] Nonetheless he gained office with preference flows from Family First Party, among many others including Pauline Hanson.

Economic issues

On the economy, Joyce has often earned the ire of his economic rationalist parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party of Australia. Though not popular among the Coalition, Joyce has taken up a number of causes often labelled as populist, such as his support for the retention of a single-desk wheat export marketing system for Australian grain growers, drought assistance for primary producers, and amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974 and media reform regulations that aim to strengthen the ability of small business to compete with multi-national corporations. When questioned on his views, he stated "Maybe I'm an agrarian socialist, I don't know, is there a problem with being an agrarian socialist?".^[9]

On 17 March 2009, Joyce launched a privately funded advertisement campaign to keep Rio Tinto local, attacking a bid by the Chinese government-owned resources company Chinalco, a bid which has also been heavily criticised by Legal & General in the United Kingdom.^[10]

Joyce also stopped the sale of Qantas to Allco Finance Group in 2006; Allco Finance Group later collapsed.

Senate service

Joyce was elected to the Senate in the 2004 election representing the National Party; his term commenced on 1 July 2005 and ran until 30 June 2011. He was re-elected at the 2010 election as a member of the Liberal National Party, formed from a merger of the Queensland divisions of the two non-Labor parties.

2004 to 2010

Joyce regained the seat that the Nationals lost to the One Nation Party in 1998, defeating the One Nation Senator Len Harris. The Liberals won three seats in Queensland. Together with Joyce's election as a National Party Senator, it was the first time since the enlargement of the Senate in 1984 that a party or coalition had won four of the six available Senate seats from a single state.

Joyce won 6.5 percent of the vote on first preferences (see Australian electoral system), well short of the 14.3 percent required for election, but made up for lost ground by the flow of second preferences from eliminated candidates of the Family First and One Nation parties, as well as from the independent candidate, Pauline Hanson. The count attracted considerable media attention because Joyce's election contributed to the ruling Coalition government having control of the Senate for the first time since 1981, a result that few political commentators had expected. One Nation, the Liberal Party and the Democrats had sitting Senators.

Joyce said before taking his seat in July 2005 that he would not be a cipher and that the government should not take his support for granted. Because the Liberals campaigned against Joyce, he never felt bound to the Liberal Party. In particular, he initially expressed misgivings about the government's proposed sale of Telstra, the partially state-owned telecommunications company, and claimed that he would vote against the sale unless he and the rest of the party were satisfied that its service in rural areas was adequate and that privatisation would not adversely affect it.

Joyce's maiden speech to the Senate on 16 August 2005 was widely reported in the Queensland media. He expressed his desire to see the power of Australia's retailing duopoly, Coles Myer and Woolworths Limited, reduced so as to protect small business and consumer rights. He also espoused the virtues of free enterprise, particularly at the small business and family-owned business level. As well, having earlier told a Right to Life conference in July that his greatest goal in public life was to ban "the unfortunate carnage" of abortion, he used his first speech to identify abortion as the "slavery debate of our time".

On 17 August 2005 the government announced a package of A$30 billion to improve telecommunications services in regional and rural areas. On the basis of this, the National Party, in consultation with Joyce, agreed to support the sale of Telstra. This led the Labor Party and Stephen Conroy in particular to label Joyce "Backdown Barney" and "Barnaby Rubble" in an acrimonious parliamentary debate. However the Labor Party never reversed the sale of Telstra when they came to government. Joyce voted with the Government in the Senate on 14 September 2005, to sell the Government's remaining share of Telstra. As the Telstra Sale Legislation had been pursued by the lower house in prior parliamentary sessions with no assistance package for regional Australia it is Joyce who is credited for negotiating and holding out till the multi billion dollar assistance package was delivered so as to attain his vote in the Senate.^[11][12]

Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the Labor and minor parties on 11 October 2005 on two motions concerning the Trade Practices Act 1974. Although both motions were lost 32–32, it was the first time since 1986 that a Government Senator has crossed the floor.

Joyce also said that he would not support the Government's "Voluntary Student Unionism" Bill banning the levying of compulsory service or amenity fees by universities without amendment because he believed it would unfairly disadvantage regional universities . However, Joyce was unsuccessful in his attempt to amend the bill, and subsequently crossed the floor on 9 December 2005 to oppose it. This was ultimately futile as the Government had secured the vote of Family First Senator Steve Fielding.

One of Joyce's major successes was the passage of the Birdsville Amendment, outlawing predatory pricing of big retailers against small business and the capping of share ownership on the sale of Medibank Private to 15% to keep it in Australians hands as well as being at the forefront of the fight to keep Qantas as an Australian publicly listed company.

In October 2006 he again crossed the floor, unsuccessfully moving amendments to the government's cross media ownership laws.^[13]

In May 2006 Joyce promoted mining of Antarctica, banned under the Antarctic Treaty. Joyce justified his proposal by saying:^[14]

There's minerals there, there's gold, there's iron ore, there's coal, there's huge fish resources and what you have to ask is: 'Do I turn my head and allow another country to exploit my resource ... or do I position myself in such a way as I'm going to exploit it myself before they get there'.

The only practising accountant in the coalition, he has a bluntness to the economic debate that raises the ire of his colleagues but has interested the media such as with his statement on the then Rudd government's first stimulus package in 2008, supported at the time by the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would "be spread across the floor on Christmas Day with 'Made in China' written on the back".^[15] The Coalition backed Joyce's position of rejecting later stimulus packages.

Crossing the Floor

Publicly, there is a perception that Joyce is a "maverick,"^[16] and is someone who is not beholden to the Liberals.^[17] However, the TheyVoteForYou website, which monitors the voting patterns of federal politicians, record that Joyce has only "rebelled" against the party whip in 1.1% of divisions.^[18]

The following table lists legislation on which Joyce has crossed the floor (Motions not included).

Year	Legislation	Voting Stance	Outcome of Legislation	Citation
2006	Petroleum Retail Legislation Repeal Bill, 2006	No	Passed	[18]
2006	Trade Practices Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2005	No	Passed	[18]
2006	Tax Laws Amendment (2006 Measures No. 4) Bill 2006	No	Passed	[18]

Leader of the Nationals in the Senate

In September 2008, Joyce replaced Nigel Scullion as Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, and stated that his party in the upper house would no longer necessarily vote with their Liberal counterparts in the upper house, which opened up another possible avenue for the Labor government to pass legislation.^[4][19][20] He was able to gain the majority support of the five Nationals (including one CLP) Senators through Fiona Nash and John Williams. The takeover was not expected nor revealed to the party until after it took place.^[21]

In February 2010 Joyce declared that Australia was "going to hock to our eyeballs to people overseas" and was "getting to a point where we can't repay it". This led to a response from the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens, that he had "yet to meet a finance minister [sic] who has ever mused any possibility about debt default of his own country" and that there were "few things less likely than Australia defaulting on its sovereign debt".^[22]

2010 to present

Joyce was re-elected in the 2010 election on a joint LNP ticket with Senators Brandis and Mason, but he got more below the line votes than above the line votes. He was appointed the Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Water and retained his role as leader of the Nationals in the Senate.^[23]

On 13 April 2013, Joyce won the Nationals preselection for the House of Representatives seat of New England in New South Wales, for the September 2013 election. The seat was then held by independent politician Tony Windsor, who held the seat on a margin of 21.52%, and who subsequently announced his retirement.^[24] Independent state parliamentarian Richard Torbay had been preselected as National candidate in August 2012, but was pushed out due to concerns about his ownership of several Centrelink buildings.^[25] Joyce resigned his Senate place on 8 August 2013. On 25 May 2013, Barry O'Sullivan was selected to replace him in the Senate.^[26]

Joyce won the seat of New England with a large swing and now sits on a margin of 21 points. He is the first person in the history of the Australian Parliament to have represented one state in the Senate and a different state in the House of Representatives. He is also the first person to win back both a Senate seat and a House of Representatives seat previously lost to the Coalition. Following the election, Joyce was elected deputy leader of the Nationals. Joyce was sworn in as the Minister for Agriculture on 18 September 2013.

Joyce writes regular opinion columns in the print media and has had more published articles than any other Nationals Party MP.

References

External links

Wikinews has related news: Key Australian senator Barnaby Joyce crosses floor for first time

• "Senator Barnaby Joyce". Parliament of Australia. ; webpage includes transcript of maiden speech; and all other parliamentary speeches.

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Len Harris	Senator for Queensland 2005–2013	Succeeded by Vacant
Preceded by Tony Windsor	Member for New England 2013–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Joel Fitzgibbon as Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry	Minister for Agriculture 2013–present	Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Nigel Scullion	Leader of the National Party in the Senate 2008–2013	Succeeded by Nigel Scullion
Preceded by Nigel Scullion	Deputy Leader of the National Party 2013–present	Incumbent

Current members of the Cabinet of Australia Tony Abbott Eric Abetz Kevin Andrews Bruce Billson Julie Bishop George Brandis Mathias Cormann Peter Dutton Joe Hockey Greg Hunt Barnaby Joyce Sussan Ley Ian Macfarlane Scott Morrison Christopher Pyne Andrew Robb Nigel Scullion Warren Truss Malcolm Turnbull

Abbott Ministry (2013–) Prime Minister: Tony Abbott Cabinet Eric Abetz Kevin Andrews Bruce Billson Julie Bishop George Brandis Mathias Cormann Peter Dutton Joe Hockey Greg Hunt Barnaby Joyce Sussan Ley Ian Macfarlane Scott Morrison Christopher Pyne Andrew Robb Nigel Scullion Warren Truss Malcolm Turnbull Outer Ministry Simon Birmingham Jamie Briggs Michaelia Cash Mitch Fifield Josh Frydenberg Luke Hartsuyker Michael Keenan Fiona Nash Marise Payne Stuart Robert Michael Ronaldson Parliamentary Secretaries Karen Andrews Bob Baldwin Darren Chester Steven Ciobo Richard Colbeck Concetta Fierravanti-Wells Paul Fletcher Michael McCormack Kelly O'Dwyer Christian Porter Scott Ryan Alan Tudge Dismissed/resigned David Johnston Arthur Sinodinos

Current members of the Australian House of Representatives from New South Wales Labor (17) Anthony Albanese Sharon Bird Chris Bowen Tony Burke Jason Clare Sharon Claydon Pat Conroy Justine Elliot Laurie Ferguson Joel Fitzgibbon Chris Hayes Ed Husic Stephen Jones Julie Owens Tanya Plibersek Michelle Rowland Matt Thistlethwaite Liberal (22) Tony Abbott John Alexander Bob Baldwin Bronwyn Bishop David Coleman Paul Fletcher Alex Hawke Peter Hendy Joe Hockey Craig Kelly Sussan Ley Louise Markus Russell Matheson Karen McNamara Scott Morrison Philip Ruddock Fiona Scott Ann Sudmalis Angus Taylor Malcolm Turnbull Nickolas Varvaris Lucy Wicks Nationals (7) John Cobb Mark Coulton David Gillespie Luke Hartsuyker Kevin Hogan Barnaby Joyce Michael McCormack