"He is a nonconformist": why New England kept the faith with Barnaby Joyce | Australia news

IOne of the electoral surprises is that Barnaby Joyce not only maintained his seat, but also increased his room for maneuver in 2016 after an unprecedented period of personal and professional unrest.

Retired farmers in New England, Brian and Cynthia Tomalin, explained that in small communities, the political views of citizens are rarely disputed. Brian calls this his dog theory.

"As farmers, we are a pretty insular lot," he says. "We usually spend the whole day alone without anyone to talk to except our dogs.

"And if we are lucky, we will go to the pub on Friday to talk to our friends and we will see that their dogs have the same opinion as our dogs. Ideas are never challenged. "

Voters in New England gave Joyce nearly 55% of the primary vote. Although this is a 10% decrease from its 2017 by-election result of Citizenship, it was a slight increase (2.5%) over the previous year. 2016 general election.

Andrew Coventry, of Armidale Outdoor, grew up in the area, as did his partner Dee, and they both voted independents. They attribute to Joyce his great visibility and the feeling that he was being targeted by the outside media.

"It surprised us a bit," says Coventry. "Australians in general love outsiders. They love a local boy's story. We crack a little for this larrikin, or a bad guy. Many people here think that he has been abused by the media and maybe a little crucified.

"He's always done the wrong thing and you can not escape it, but many people do not like the idea that he's being harbaded as much as he's done." . "

Rusty Coalition voters and voters on the move offer a similar explanation. Rob Richardson is quite typical of Conservative voters in the district. His family ran the department store located on Armidale's main street. He has also been a consultant and worked in the employment services. He is now semi-retired.

He describes Joyce as "flamboyant", a member of Parliament who meets the needs of the community and draws attention to New England.

"He is a maker. It makes things happen. He is a maverick and there are not many who stay in politics these days, "Richardson said.

"I thought that he was a good Deputy Prime Minister, a great person, a great personality. He is a local member of Woolbrook. This is a guy with whom people can identify. Mind you, there are many people who do not like it pbadionately. "

Invited to name what Joyce had done for the electorate, Richardson discusses the controversial decision to transfer the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority from Canberra to Armidale. He watched the scandal of Canberra with perplexity.

"[It was] How does a regional city dare to steal one of our ministries? ", did he declare.

"Doing that was remarkable, there was controversy around that too … It just seems to flourish under all these pressures and controversies."

It's the puzzle between local politics and national politics. Outside of her seat, Joyce has been severely criticized for her personal conduct and for managing the agriculture and water portfolios. Yet inside the seat, controversy feeds much of his support.

APVMA's decision has been controversial since 2016 – when Joyce announced it without Cabinet approval, under the pressure of a challenge from Tony Windsor – at this month, she opened at 91 Beardy Street.

There had been badysis of the costs and critical costs, the change of site specifications, reports indicating that the staff was sending a request for Wi-Fi access to McDonalds, arson club Armidale located at 91 Beardy Street, while the Agriculture Department was looking for information on the site from interested bidders. , a coroner's inquiry into the fire and subsequent suicide, police investigations and numerous attempts by parliament to get to the bottom of things.

Meanwhile, there is still no national drought policy. Joyce has presided over major and regular cuts in Landcare funding. The living product export industry, which he defended, is in shambles – an independent study has blamed the former agriculture minister for a chronic regulatory failure. Water management at the Murray Darling Basin has reached a critical point, unaided by the controversial buyout of water under his watch, with South New South Wales shaking with full force. and creating challenges for Coalition MPs at Farrer and Mallee headquarters during the federal election.

But Joyce eliminates all the questions with simple solutions.

"If more water is to be used for socio-economic purposes, it should be," he told Armidale. "Drought, once it reaches a certain point, is a national emergency."

And the choice of 91 Beardy Street for the APVMA?

"In politics, there are conspiracy theories," says Joyce. "I do not choose the site where they put the building …

"It's just up there with the man who lands on the moon's past in a basement in Los Angeles."

An independent series

After the election, New England found its rhythm. Our visit coincides with a layer of snow in some parts of the 66,000 square kilometers of seats. Joyce has held it since 2013, after leaving the Queensland Senate to run for the Lower House to fulfill his leadership ambitions.

He challenged New England after the 43rd Parliament when Windsor and his independent colleague Rob Oakeshott agreed to support Julia Gillard. The headquarters includes Woolbrook (185 inhabitants, 18% of whom are natives), the city where Joyce's parents still operate.

His victory brought New England back into the fold of the national party, although the electorate was virtually gold plated after Windsor represented the region at the federal and federal levels in two suspended parliaments.

In particular, the Gillard government asked Armidale to proceed with the first roll-out of the national broadband network, extend funding for the Chaffey Dam and the modernization of Tamworth Hospital, as well as carry out broader work on the changes. climate change and parliamentary integrity.

But for some of New England, none of this offsets the bias with the Labor government. While the region was home to conservative independents such as Windsor and the former independent state Richard Torbay, who had disappeared from public life in dubious circumstances, the National was rusty early in the federation.

Everyone we spoke to, including Windsor, agreed that his decision to join the Labor Party had an impact on the chances of the future New England independents, especially this year's favorite, Adam Blakester.

Add to that the ambitious platform of the Labor Party and the weak personal support of Bill Shorten. This is a long campaign in a short campaign for a prominent centrist independence activist, such as Blakester, who worked for Greenpeace and serves on the board of Lock the Gate.

"Many people in the country did not particularly like Bill Shorten and they saw something other than the Coalition as a potential Bill Shorten," says Windsor. "Part of that would be an excess of my involvement in the suspended parliament in 2010-13, where some people would always see an independent as possibly going to the side of the Labor Party in a suspended parliament.

"A lot of people tend to come back from which side of the tennis court they were born on and not look at the problems they represent."

Richardson agrees. "I guess I'm a bit pragmatic, and out of that [Armidale] got the NBN … which Tamworth [council] angry at what Tony Windsor had done, "he says. "But I think it really hurt, there's no question. He was in a really difficult position. "

The Tomalins agree that the choice of Windsor has created a big hurdle, although they support his decision, since the alternative was a Tony Abbott government.

"If it was not Tony Windsor, the Chaffey Dam would not have been upgraded even though Barnaby Joyce took the credit because it was finished after Tony left," says Brian.

"We have a new hospital … it has brought a lot of things because of the agreements that it has been able to make with the government that have benefited the electorate."

Fierce attacks on Facebook

Colin Gadd, retired senior director, former Armidale advisor and perpetual volunteer, describes himself as a suspended elector who has already supported Windsor in the past. He had viewed Joyce's Facebook page during the elections, which was constantly attracting attacks from people who seemed to live outside the region.

"He is a drunkard, a misogynist, a thief, he has been accused of setting fire to the Armidale club so that they can build the APVMA. It's an absolute trash bin, "says Gadd.

"All these accusations, it's a little Nazi propaganda of the 1930s, tell a pretty big lie, say it enough times and people believe it. The people here, as evidenced by his vote, ignored him and still voted for him. "

Coventry uses the APVMA as an example of a successful Joyce that has failed in the electorate, offering jobs that can "pay off a mortgage and a new car every five years." When these prestigious examples are combined with a national recognition with a unique name, he thinks it works in the ballot box.

"A lot of people here would not know how to vote otherwise," he says. "They would not have thought about who else or where else to vote. The fact that he made so much talk about the news probably helped him.

New England voters did not mention the very public break-up of their MP's marriage, his relationship with his employee and their children, although they have always been very active in conversations about Joyce outside the seat.

Joyce said that, even if people did not give him a "gold star" for his relationships, as long as he did not take offense, voters treated her like a "personal business".

"To be honest, in some media, they have done too much, have overcooked," he says.

"In general, Australians are faced with the question of how they did it. If they see someone on the floor pushing the slipper … they ask other questions and they have empathy, they say it could be me and I would not like it.

Joyce said that the New Englanders strongly identified with their local area rather than with the state and that all they wanted from their MP was a "parish representation".

"They may also see me as a problem, but their problem, not someone else 's, and I recognize it. The main thing they wanted to get out of me was work. "

"It does not follow the logic"

Blakester is appalled by the positive evolution of Joyce in 2016, given his ministerial record.

"Voters have mathematically rewarded Joyce for his conduct over the past two years, so that makes no sense," he says.

The most common view is that Joyce does well in tasks such as the APVMA, but also the usual government activities such as roads, bridges and telephone towers, he adds.

He thinks that the video that surfaced during the campaign that showed that Joyce was boasting about the dismissal of the people of the head of the Department of Agriculture, Paul Grimes, could have really helped the member.

"There is a perception that he is able to deliver in a way because of its bullish nature and a vision that matches what is needed in Canberra," says Blakester. "You must be a willing individual to get results."

Blakester's team had polled more than 1,000 voters to find out what their priorities were – something Windsor thought was a failure.

"People always say you do not listen to us, you do not do what we say," says Windsor. "[Blakester] did that, but he was not rewarded. The slogan that Joyce pursues has been rewarded, so I shake my head as much as anyone.

Blakester is not sure he can represent himself, even though his supporters are keen to continue their engagement with the seat. Independent campaigns in headquarters such as that of Indi show that an ongoing commitment throughout the legislature is essential to strengthen the support of the highly conservative electorates.

Gadd says that if anyone started campaigning next week, he would watch them closely. Richardson acknowledges that Joyce appealed to "Howard wrestlers" rather than "the intelligentsia," though this support may change.

"[Joyce] would have had a lot of rusty voters, he had me like a rusty voter but I would have been a minority, "says Richardson.

"He would have had a lot of voters like Colin who, if anyone else shows up and can offer great things, the majority of voters will go that way. And Barnaby knows it.