The Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has held out the prospect of preferencing One Nation ahead of Labor at the federal level, saying he will make a final determination based on the policies being offered by other political parties.
With government ministers lining up in recent days to pave the way for the Liberal party to do preference deals with One Nation at the federal level, Joyce was asked on Sky News on Tuesday whether he would approve of putting One Nation ahead of Labor on a Nationals how-to-vote card in a federal election.
Joyce said it was a question of policies. “It depends what policies they bring forward.”
“If the Labor party come forward with policies [like a 50% renewable energy target], with bat-poo crazy policies, so that Australia looks like South Australia, then I will consider them on their policies.”
He said he’d never subscribed to the view that One Nation should be put last. “When everyone said you’ve got to put One Nation last, I never did in New England.”
Joyce repeated his mantra that policy was the test. “I’ll judge people by their policies. If they say mad things then you won’t get our preferences. If you say reasonable things, then we’ll consider it.”
The Nationals leader has been critical of a decision by the West Australian Liberal party to put One Nation ahead of the Nationals in some regions in the forthcoming state election.
With Labor this week on the offensive about the WA preference deal with One Nation, declaring the Coalition should abide by John Howard’s practice of putting One Nation last on how-to-vote cards – Joyce also attempted on Tuesday to blunt the attack by ridiculing Labor’s practice of preferencing the Greens.
In an attempt to deflect focus from the obvious shift in favour of preferencing One Nation, and create a kind of equivalence, government frontbenchers, including Joyce, have characterised the Greens as an extremist party.
But Joyce became stranded on Tuesday by a decision by the Nationals in WA to preference the Greens ahead of the Liberals in the state election – a move which is clearly a retaliation against the WA Liberals decision to strike the deal with One Nation.
Joyce on Sky News criticised his colleagues in the WA Nationals for choosing to put the Greens above the Liberals. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“It’s all retaliation. The Libs put One Nation above the Nats, and then Nats have come back and put the Greens above the Libs – then what happens?”
“This is what happens when you start picking on your business partner or your girlfriend or whatever. One scratches, the other one scratches back. It’s not an outcome you want.”
Joyce said he intended to work out a preference strategy for the Nationals at the federal level in consultation with his colleagues.
Asked whether he agreed with arguments a number of cabinet colleagues had made in recent days that One Nation was a more sophisticated political party than it was at the time Howard declared it needed to be put last, Joyce hedged.
He said their “delivery is more polished”.
During a separate interview with the ABC on Tuesday night, Joyce was asked whether he’d asked Turnbull for a guarantee at the federal level that the Liberals would not preference One Nation ahead of the Nationals. He said he didn’t need to ask for such a guarantee.
Controversy over preferences rolled through the political day in Canberra, as did the continuing finger-pointing over energy policy.
Early in the day the government suffered a blow when the Nick Xenophon Team confirmed it would not support the childcare and omnibus savings bill package which the government has wanted to legislate in the opening phase of the parliamentary year.
The NXT’s opposition will force the government to negotiate in an effort to salvage the childcare package and savings measures.
The treasurer Scott Morrison said on Tuesday evening the government would work through the proposals with the crossbench, measure by measure. Morrison was asked whether the government would consider raising the Medicare levy to raise additional revenue to pay for childcare and other spending, but he dead batted. “It’s not my practice to go into a shopping list of items [ahead of the budget].”
The prime minister, Joyce and the deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, emphasised during their regular party room meeting the importance of doubling down on their current energy campaign.
Joyce told colleagues it was important to engage the ALP on “our own issue, energy security” and Bishop observed it was a potent issue for the Coalition.
The prime minister said the government, by focusing on cost-of-living issues, had made progress after a “difficult start” to the year.
He declared the Labor leader Bill Shorten was a member of the “mindless, unplanned renewable energy club”.
The aggression rolled through into question time. Asked a question about a weekend report in Guardian Australia revealing extreme price spikes in Queensland’s fossil fuel-dominated electricity market this year had far eclipsed those seen in South Australia – the prime minister refused to engage with the substance, and resorted to ridicule.
“There’s a wonderful retro quality about the leader of the opposition’s performance today,” Turnbull told the parliament. “He reminds me of one of those old Soviet leaders whose country slipped backwards and backwards and they would be able to produce some figures from Gosplan showing the umbrella factory was beating production levels.”
Earlier in the day Turnbull met a delegation of business leaders from South Australia concerned about energy prices and energy security in the state. The group has also been pressing Xenophon to support the government’s company tax cut plan, but the NXT leader has held out giving his support to the proposed cut for big businesses.
Xenophon has signalled in the past he wants the government to deal substantially with energy policy, including agreeing to a form of carbon trading for the electricity sector, before he will consider tax cuts for big companies.
