Barnaby Joyce declares he’s ‘entitled’ to Coalition policy debate despite not ruling out One Nation move

Barnaby Joyce has declared he’s “entitled” to policy debate in the National party despite not ruling out a move to One Nation after announcing he won’t recontest his seat.

In his first major press conference since rumours began to swirl of his potential defection on Friday, the maverick MP again didn’t rule out a move to Pauline Hanson’s minor party, pointing to “a lot of similarities”.

It came after he remained coy in a string of media interviews on Monday about his political future after confirming he would run in New England next election.

“I’m still basically a member of the National Party. I have not joined another party, but I think that’s for me to consider over time,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

Speaking in Tamworth, Mr Joyce said a “breakdown” in the relationship with Nationals leader David Littleproud had contributed to his decision, adding it had been “pretty traumatic” for him.

He labelled “the straw that broke the camel’s back” was the “awkward” timing of the story being “leaked” to the media about his potential deflection.

Mr Joyce had been at a weekend fundraiser for the Liberal-National Party in central Queensland when the story broke, which he was asked by the party to attend.

“(The) story about me going to One Nation just completely blew my weekend out of the water and made things incredibly awkward,” he said.

“And I thought ‘I’ve got to deal with this now and I’m going to deal with it’.”

In a blitz of interviews on Monday, Mr Joyce had said he didn’t expect to sit in the partyroom when he returned to Parliament in Canberra next week.

Despite clarifying in the interview that he was still a Nationals member, he also declared himself a “free agent”.

“Once more going back to a relationship. Once you’re out, you’re a free agent,” he said.

“I want to make this very clear, I love the membership that has been so good to me, and I’m not going to be part of any process that I believe hurts the National Party membership.

“I will be involved in the policy debate. I’m entitled to that.”

Mr Joyce on Monday added fuel to the frenzied speculation that he would resign from the lower house to run for a NSW Senate seat under One Nation’s banner as a succession plan for Senator Hanson when he told ABC Radio he believed the minor party “do a good job”.

He again mentioned the party’s appeal on Tuesday, saying “philosophically there’s a lot of similarities” particularly around their desire to axe Australia’s net zero by 2050 commitment which he has previously been vocal on.

Mr Joyce added that he didn’t want his decision to been seen as “some attack on Sussan (Ley)“ but reiterated the that he has “different philosophical views than her — and one is Net Zero”.

During the Tamworth press conference, he also questioned whether anyone attending had COVID and spoke about the danger of “the State” being too powerful.

“Just keep the State in check. Don’t have it so powerful,” he said.

“I suppose a classic example that recently was not the issue with COVID, but the excesses that came into place — where all of a sudden you felt like the State was locking (you in) your house.

“It just seemed to have too much power in your life. And there’s probably people here today with COVID.”

Mr Littleproud has rejected Mr Joyce’s claims of a “breakdown”, insisted the pair have a good working relationship and urged him to stay in the Nationals.