Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce will formally resign from the Nationals after his steak and salad dinner with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
Making good his pledge to make a call on his future before the end of the sitting week, he has told colleagues he will pull the pin today.
However, Mr Joyce’s friend and Nationals colleague Matt Canavan criticised his decision to move to One Nation.
“It’s only now that he’s trying to jump ship. He doesn’t see a future in the Nationals party for himself. But that seems to me, to raise the question: is this move from Barnaby about the Australian people, or is it about himself?” he asked.
“It’s turning into a longer saga than Days Of Our Lives, so I think people are all sick and tired of it. It seems to me, there’s already fights before they’ve exchanged vows. So how’s this going to turn out?”
Joyce confirms worst-kept secret
This week, Mr Joyce confirmed Canberra’s worst-kept secret, dining with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in a move that confirmed he was looking to jump ship from the Nationals.
Just hours after Ms Hanson threw on a burqa and high heels and marched into the Senate sparking chaos, the Queensland senator found time to dine with the former deputy prime minister.
Earlier, Barnaby Joyce defended her right to wear the burqa on free speech grounds, as his soon-to-be colleague Ms Hanson accused critics of a “freak out”.
“The usual hypocrites had an absolute freak out,” she said of her burqa protest.
“The fact is, more than 20 countries around the world have banned the burqa because they recognise it as a tool that oppresses women, poses a national security risk, encourages radical Islam, and threatens social cohesion.
“If these hypocrites don’t want me to wear a burqa, they can always support my ban.”
Timeline for a defection
The former deputy prime minister was expected to defect to Senator Hanson’s party following disagreements with Nationals leader David Littleproud.
“I just don’t want any circus. I’m trying to wait till the end of the sitting week,” Mr Joyce said on Monday when asked about his political future.
When asked directly whether he would make a move after parliament rises, he said: “I’ll see. If I was doing anything, I’d try and get out of the building.”
Previously, he confirmed he won’t stand again for the party at the next election but left the door open to a switch to One Nation.
“My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irreparably broken down,” he said at the time.
“The instructions that during the federal election I was not to campaign outside New England as that did not represent the views of the Nationals, then after the election being moved on for ‘generational change’ and just the atmospherics in the party room, where I am seated in the far corner of the Coalition in the chamber, means I am seen and now turning into a discordant note. That is not who I want to be.
“More importantly our position in continuing to support Net Zero with the massive schism and hurt to my electorate, to small businesses, to the environment, to the poor, to the defence of Australia and creating hate between lifelong friends in my community makes continuing in the Nationals’ Party Room in Canberra under this policy untenable.”
Mr Joyce said he would be free to consider options.
“I will not be standing for New England again but will complete my term as promised at the last election,” he said.
“I will leave with the greatest of love for all and money in the electorate bank account.
“I am free to now consider all options as to what I do next.
“I hope that the members understand the unfortunate position I am in and the obvious action after a period of consideration I must take.
“I wished I had been given more time to consider this and don’t know the motives of those who put the story out there.
“I am so desperately sorry as to the hurt this may cause and close with the deepest of affection for you all.”
Speculation mounts
It comes as the splintering of the Coalition over climate change continues.
Six months after Peter Dutton lost the 2025 election in a catastrophic landslide to Labor, Mr Joyce proposed a plan to reverse Australia’s net zero emissions target.
The campaign, backed by fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, aims to repeal what Mr Joyce calls Australia’s “lunatic crusade” of net zero by 2050.
One Nation refused to rule out the recruitment drive on Friday night, with Senator Hanson telling the Nine newspapers, “If Barnaby wants to come to One Nation, I’d be happy to have him”.
Mr Joyce declined to comment with his colleague Senator Matt Canavan insisting he had “no idea” what was going to happen.
It followed a report in the Sydney Morning Herald that other Coalition MPs could follow and jump ship.
Any departure by the former deputy prime minister would be another blow following the decision of Andrew Hastie to go to the backbench and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s expulsion from the frontbench.
In May, National Party leader David Littleproud announced the party would dump the Coalition agreement in the wake of the disastrous election result before promptly mending the fence.
He blamed a fight over the four policy issues, including the future of nuclear power and supermarket divestitures.
It was a historic move, one of the rare splits in opposition since the 1920s. But it didn’t last long.
Last year, Mr Joyce was diagnosed with a serious illness, and he was filmed lying on a Canberra footpath mumbling into a mobile phone.
The former Nationals leader had defiantly refused to take leave in recent weeks after the fallout from his Braddon misadventure made national headlines.
“I don’t take advice from people in Canberra,” he said.
“I take advice from my wife, my close friends, and my local GP. I do not listen to the views of people in this crazy boarding school they call parliament.
“Look, obviously, I made a big mistake — there’s no excuse for it.
“There is a reason, and it was a very eventful walk home wasn’t it. I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100 per cent right.”
At the time, Mr Littleproud confirmed that he had decided to take personal leave following a stressful period.
“He won’t be here this week. He’s notified me that he won’t be coming to parliament,” Mr Littleproud told Nine’s Today program.
“He’s having the week off, which we gave him the opportunity to undertake with his family [sic]. And I respect that. And I hope, hope he went to church yesterday and all he had was altar wine.”
The former deputy prime minister had declared he was ashamed and “embarrassed” after the video emerged, and he revealed he had mixed alcohol with prescription medicine.
“Barnaby’s embarrassed himself and his family, and while he’s clearly articulated some of the underlying issues and circumstances, there are other circumstances that I’m not going to break his confidence on,” Mr Littleproud said.
The bizarre footage recorded the Nationals frontbencher lying on the footpath in Canberra late at night while mumbling “dead f**king c***” into his phone.
Witnesses claim the MP had been sitting on a large pot plant while chatting on the phone before he fell off and started swearing into the phone.
Mr Joyce has made no secret of his mental health issues. He had previously written that he needed to seek help during his marriage breakdown.
“Winston Churchill had his black dog. Mine was a half-crazed cattle dog, biting everything that came near the yard,” Mr Joyce wrote in his book.
He eventually did seek the help of a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him with depression.
He also started praying at a “special” rock he found on Canberra’s Red Hill.
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