Editorial
Barnaby Joyce’s political grey area

You can say this about Barnaby Joyce: it took him eating dinner in Pauline Hanson’s parliamentary office to realise how much he resembles a steak cooked on an open sandwich press. What the man lacks in integrity, he makes up for in shallow symbolism: the cow was reared by Gina Rinehart.

For a period after his first marriage ended, Joyce cast doubt on the paternity of the child he conceived with his then media adviser. He said he was travelling with his wife at the time, and after that he was busy as acting prime minister with a security detail, and it was “a bit of a grey area”.

Joyce wasn’t shy about this. He said it in an interview with a newspaper while the mother of his child was eight months pregnant. “They never even asked,” he said, “if it was Joyce’s bundle.”

Colleagues said he was a “first-class cunt”. His comments were “selfish” and “disrespectful”. There are parallels with his resignation from the Nationals this week and his refusal to say if he is defecting to One Nation. For a person with such a broken filter, he finds candour elusive. His political loyalty is “a bit of a grey area”.

Joyce said he resigned because no one talked to him. “One of the biggest things … is that after five weeks, I announced this about five weeks ago, apart from a 92-second phone conversation with the leader, I’ve had no communication with either leader of the National Party or the deputy leader of the National Party to try and resolve this, and that’s disappointing.”

What was to be resolved was only Joyce’s ego. He already got what he wanted on net zero, at the expense of the country. He dragged the Liberals into abandoning the commitment and any electoral future. He tracked mud through both parties. He has all the qualities of a carpet stain except persistence.

It is most likely now that Joyce will run for One Nation in the Senate. The money is good and the role is unburdened by expectations of competence. Past candidates have been car thieves and conspiracy theorists. One accused his leader of sexual harassment and later painted her office door with his own blood. “Whilst I do not recall the incident of blood on the door,” the senator said, “I now have come to the conclusion that it was myself and I sincerely apologise for that action.”

It says a lot about the politics of this country that the leaders of two major parties have ended up as potential candidates for a racist fringe group. At least with Mark Latham it was sort of a surprise. For Joyce, it’s just another grift.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on November 29, 2025 as "Second Joyce".

For almost a decade, The Saturday Paper has published Australia’s leading writers and thinkers. We have pursued stories that are ignored elsewhere, covering them with sensitivity and depth. We have done this on refugee policy, on government integrity, on robo-debt, on aged care, on climate change, on the pandemic.

All our journalism is fiercely independent. It relies on the support of readers. By subscribing to The Saturday Paper, you are ensuring that we can continue to produce essential, issue-defining coverage, to dig out stories that take time, to doggedly hold to account politicians and the political class.

There are very few titles that have the freedom and the space to produce journalism like this. In a country with a concentration of media ownership unlike anything else in the world, it is vitally important. Your subscription helps make it possible.

Send this article to a friend for free.