‘He’s just a wind in the sail’: Prime Minister opens up about his relationship with Barnaby Joyce after Today Show host Karl Stefanovic described the deputy prime minister as a pebble in an RM Williams boot
- Barnaby Joyce called a ‘pebble in a boot’ by Today show host Karl Stefanovic
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison laughed off the suggestion on Thursday
- Mr Joyce on Tuesday snatched the Nationals leadership in partyroom ballot
Scott Morrison has rejected suggestions Barnaby Joyce is a nuisance, describing the returned Nationals leader in glowing terms.
‘I describe him as a wind in the sails,’ the prime minister told the Nine Network.
‘I was treasurer when he was deputy prime minister, Barnaby and I have sat around cabinet tables for years, and we’re both passionate about what we want to achieve for this country.’
In an interview with Today’s Karl Stefanovic and Allie Langdon on Thursday the PM said Barnaby Joyce was the ‘wind in the sails’
Mr Joyce has already made waves after seizing the leadership in a partyroom ballot, with the Nationals now casting doubt on climate targets and threatening to blow up the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
The prime minister was challenged on whether the wind Mr Joyce created could prove perilous for the government.
‘This is going to get us where we need to go as a country,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘You’ll see.’
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is lapping up the Nationals leadership switch and ensuing policy chaos.
‘Spoiler alert: Barnaby is the spoiler,’ he told a business forum in Canberra on Thursday.
Mr Joyce (pictured) snatched back the Nationals leadership in a ballot on Tuesday
Nationals senator Matt Canavan is proud of the party’s water rebellion and pushback on net zero emissions.
However, some of Mr Joyce’s recent comments on a Sri Lankan family from Biloela have attracted the ire of a Liberal cabinet colleague.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has hit back at the deputy prime minister’s ‘unfair and mischaracterised’ claim the government would have treated Tamil children Tharnicaa and Kopika differently if their names were Jane and Sally.
‘It doesn’t weigh on my mind in any way, shape or form what their names are or what ethnicity they are or what country they’ve come from,’ Mr Hawke told SBS.
‘It’s about whether we owe them protection and whether they fit into our legal migration framework.’
Mr Morrison is isolating after returning to Australia from the G7 meeting in the UK
Nationals MP George Christensen has announced he will retire at the next election, but there are suggestions he could reconsider now Mr Joyce has returned as leader.
Mr Joyce fuelled the speculation during Question Time on Thursday, heaping praise on the outspoken backbencher.
‘I’m doing everything I can to make sure the member for Dawson remains the member for Dawson after the next election because of the advocacy that he has done,’ he told parliament.