THIS world is run by those who turn up,” Tony Windsor told his political meeting at the Inverell RSM Club just before he decided to retire.
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When interviewed by The Inverell Times this week Barnaby Joyce agreed with that sentiment, but his interpretation of it was very different.
There is little doubt the transition to The Nationals from an Independent Member divided opinion sharply in some parts of the New England electorate, despite the commonalities of Tony Windsor and Barnaby Joyce.
Mr Windsor held this seat with a large margin and he was either loved or loathed depending on who you asked. Mr Joyce’s scorecard looks very similar at the moment, yet both men have ‘turned up’ for the electorate.
“My question is, turn up where? You’ve got to turn up to the place where the decisions are being made to change things,” Mr Joyce said.
He said when Parliament was sitting, there was an obvious expectation that he turn up there. Then from nowhere, it seemed, that notorious sense of humour of his kicked in.
“Mind you people like Clive Palmer don’t bother turning up; and a lot of the time Bob Katter doesn’t turn up either,” he quipped with a chuckle that was echoed down the telephone by those of his staff in the room with him.
“The Independents had a lot more latitude, but I don’t know if that’s more effective.”
‘Effective’ seemed to be the key word for Mr Joyce. He was positive he could do more for the electorate as a Cabinet Minister than an Independent backbencher.
“When you are offered a Ministry, it comes with four and a half thousand staff and it’s a bloody big job,” Mr Joyce said.
“The bad side is that you are flat out. There are some times when you are weeks away, and you hate it.”
“Then you toss through your mind, ‘I’ll give the Ministry up’.”
Mr Joyce said the thought of quitting the agriculture portfolio was more than offset by the promise of what could be achieved if he kept it. He said he was aware of a perception in some quarters that he was not in his electorate as often as expected.
“People could understandably say ‘what have you been doing?’ Well, last week I had to go to Saudi Arabia because I’m trying to work out how we can get about a million more sheep into Saudi. I know this can be worth about $40 per head,” he said.
“We’re trying to move more dairy product into that part of the world. Victorians say, ‘you’re the Minister for Agriculture, not the minister for NSW, so we want to see you about dairy, because we’re unhappy about dairy with the Japanese Free Trade Agreement’. This is the role of the Ministry.
“As I always say, it’s not as if I am missing, I know exactly where I am.”
Mr Joyce thought the electorate would appreciate the situation and, in some cases, take advantage of it.
“I think people understand that Australia is a big place, and I hope they like the idea that the agricultural ministry is held in our seat,” he said.
“People will say you’ve got to change something or other, well, the higher up the tree you are the more likely you are to change it.”
So what sort of representative has New England got now?
Mr Joyce crossed the floor to vote with the opposition 19 times when he was a senator under the coalition’s Howard government.
Senator John Williams once joked Mr Joyce wore out the carpet.
“You always keep all options open all the time, because you never sell your soul to something,” Mr Joyce said.