Saving Barnaby
Thursday 22 February 2018
On Wednesday 2 August 2017 I wrote what follows as a result of Barnaby Joyce’s inappropriate drunken outburst in a Shepparton hotel. It is but one of many examples of why he should not be the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia …
In a beery-voice filled with the local liquid amber, in a pub in country Shepparton Victoria, the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia opened his loud mouth a little too far and admitted he was involved in ‘stealing’ water.
Gabrielle Chan, Deputy Political Editor of The Guardian reported it thus:
In doing so, he effectively confirmed he had made Malcolm Turnbull take water away from the environment portfolio and give it to him so he could protect upstream interests.
“We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after you and make sure we don’t have the greenies running the show basically sending you out the back door, and that was a hard ask,” he said in the recording.
“A couple of nights ago on Four Corners, you know what that’s all about? It’s about them trying to take more water off you, trying to create a calamity. A calamity for which the solution is to take more water off you, shut more of your towns down.”
Basically he has admitted that he has broken the law.“We have taken water, put it back into agriculture, so we could look after you.’’
This is of course contrary to the Murray Darling Agreement.
So how does the government choose to protect this hapless imbecilic minister?
Enquiries with no teeth seem to be the answer.
The terms of reference of the government review will cover:
• The appropriateness of and compliance with state laws, statutory instruments (including water resource plans), the terms and conditions of water licences and entitlements and any other relevant powers or approvals;
• The adequacy of water measurement and monitoring arrangements, including metering and investigating irregular activity; and
• The adequacy of governance and institutional arrangements necessary to ensure legally compliant water use.
It won’t have the power to subpoena witnesses. Witnesses can choose as to if they appear or not.
That gets Barnaby off the hook nicely. So Barnaby goes about his business waffling on about the integrity of the system and that there are now three enquiries.
There are those calling for him to be sacked as Water Minister but there is little chance of that because part of the deal for Malcolm getting his job was that Barnaby got water.
So even though Joyce admitted he was involved in stealing water to the value of up to $13 million, without witnesses willing or able to testify against him, he can say it was just the grog talking, and walk away scott free. What a bunch of crooks they are.
Now we have the Auditor General Grant Hehir conceding to, after a request from Tony Burke, agreeing to expand a current enquiry into National Partnership Agreements to include how Barnaby Joyce’s department is monitoring the performance of NSW under the agreement on implementing water reform in the basin, in relation to the use of environmental water.
In New South Wales ICAC is also conducting an enquiry.
Barnaby Joyce freely admits that the National Party took responsibility for water from the environment portfolio and into his agriculture portfolio to “look after” farmers:
“We’ve taken water and put it back into agriculture so we can look after you and make sure we don’t have the greenies running the show basically sending you out the back door …
That was a hard ask but we did it.”
As I said earlier, the Nationals took over water as part of the Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party in 2015.
No wonder Labor is trying to gain access to it.
Turnbull signed it probably knowing their intentions. That makes him complicit in the theft.
We should be having nothing less than a judicial inquiry into the allegations. Only a leader with the impudence of Barnaby Joyce would have the effrontery to carry on as though nothing has happened.
Dare I say it but if Labor were running the country this appallingly the Murdoch press would be demanding an election now. On Insiders last Sunday the panelists were trying to highlight the seriousness of this blatant theft but they were at a loss as to what could be done.
My thought for the day
“It seems to me that the wisest people I know are the ones that apply reason, and logic and leave room for doubt. The most unwise are the fools and fanatics who don’t.”
PS: In case you don’t know, Michael McCormack, one of the potential leaders of the Nationals, once said in a newspaper article; “Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn’t wipe out humanity, they’re here to stay.”
The Conservatives have a way of drawing together the most unusual of human beings.
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Return to home pageThanks John, in some form, when they put up their hand to serve, that very act should disqualify them from the job. Don’t hold your breath waiting for outcomes, I’ve worked with Judges and they’re as addicted to the power, entitlements and trappings of the stratosphere as are Barnaby and his ilk.
corrupt. That’s the current Aussie government. On so many different levels, it’s getting difficult to keep track.
Elsewhere, the past few weeks saw the total polar ice coverage drop to further ‘unprecedented’ records.
The Arctic freeze had already reached new lows, but a recent drop in Antarctic ice below last years record minimum means we have scored a new ‘anomalously unprecedented ice record.
Meanwhile, here is a photo of Barnaby in parliament.
It is from the time he communicated his intentions regarding the waters of the Murray-Darling by loudly and repeatedly braying “CARP!!!” , and captures the moment when Joyce’s prolonged display of manic dementia caused Julie Bishop to turn and query Chistopher Pyne as to whether it was wise to share his giggle-powder with Barnaby.
. https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims3/GLOB/legacy_thumbnail/1200×630/format/jpg/quality/85/http%3A%2F%2Fi.huffpost.com%2Fgen%2F4275966%2Fimages%2Fn-JOYCE-628×314.jpg
Your last sentence says it all, John Lord, and of course you are putting it in a rather civil fashion : ‘ most unusual human beings….’
For me they seem to lack all good human qualities : generosity, kindness, empathy, and all of them, totally humourless…
Katherine Murphy wrote:
I can’t tell you with any certainty when Australian politics became purely an ego sport, when it became untethered from shame, or modesty, or dignity, or proportion, and just fell face-first into its own soap opera, lapsing into a daily practice of coughing up fur balls – but we are here now and, at times, it is sickening.
Politics is presenting to the Australian public as little more than institutionalised self-absorption at taxpayer expense.
It is obscene, it is exhausting and it is mostly pointless.
The Jesuits that educated Abbott and Joyce like to talk about “men for others” – a Catholic concept of serving a cause larger than yourself.
Right now, we seem about as far away from that calling as it is possible to be.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/22/as-abbott-rages-and-joyce-rails-we-are-all-diminished
Katherine Murphy is right on target, and the platitude, the inmates are running the asylum applies – there is a collective psychosis amongst them.
Once heard a comment, which I am unable to locate, which stated that in a mental asylum, the most acute psychosis comes to dominate the patients, with many developing the same illness
We’re in the middle of a schoolyard battle between a collection of selfish, self important, narcissistic, privileged private school toffs.
If it were happening at school during my time, I would be hurling orchy bottles filled with water at the lot of them
Vive la revolution
Barnaby is corrupt – Jay Weatherills Royal Commission is waiting for him, Im sure. And Labor’s National Integrity Commission will be seeing more of him, once its set up too, Like so many, I feel totally frustrated that there seems to be absolutely no brake on the type of stuff Barnaby is getting up to,
It still comes down to the fact that Turnbull in his never ending quest to remain as “No. 1” has become a toilet to the people who helped put him where is today. Joyce and the other rabid right crap on him every day and he smiles and offers them toilet paper because of his fear of becoming what he did to Abbott.
It will be interesting to see what historians in the years to come (except the LNP apologists who will spin, spin, spin) have to say about the most useless, inept, corrupt, privileged and democracy destroying gubmint and political party we are currently lumbered with.
Spot on John.
Pardon my aside: The Donald has come up with a stunningly brilliant idea to help curb school massacres –
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/21/donald-trump-solution-to-school-shootings-arm-teachers-with-guns
We’ve heard this plan, and others along to same lines, on multiple occasions…oh wait, it’s all fake news news until Trump lays claim to it. Silly me.
Barnaby is drunk on power
He is drunk on alcohol too
Barnaby is a disease within politics .. an insidious creeping cancer in Australia’s political affairs!
Kronomex, straight from the NRA script from December 21 2012 in the aftermath of Sandy Hook
‘Only Way To Stop A Bad Guy With A Gun Is With A Good Guy With A Gun’ – David Keene. The man is an abomination!
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/12/21/nra-only-way-to-stop-a-bad-guy-with-a-gun-is-with-a-good-guy-with-a-gun/
I would like to know how many times a mass shooter has been stopped by a member of the public shooting them. I would suggest never.
And speaking as a teacher, it would be a really bad idea to give us guns for so many reasons, not least of which is making you a target for kids who want to steal it and shoot you. A report just released shows that one in three school principals in Australia have experienced physical violence at work. I don’t think people understand what a fine line we walk in schools. Guns have no place there.
Nice read today, lord john?
Heard joyce’s plea for an end to the ‘persecution’.
As a measure of my bias, it sounded like an excuse to continue rather than stop.
If a couple of the boys get together this week and con nigel into stepping aside then joyce is gone.
Will labor consider adding a lead belt to a treading water barnaby???
That same mccormack stood with WW2 veterans when he was appointed in the 2017 ‘shiffle’ and then said the airmen who wanted to go to the opening of the bomber command international memorial were too OLD for help with the cost. These people are miserable.
corvus, how did you manage to find a picture of a sober Barnaby Joyce in parliament?
You photoshopped it, didn’t you? 😛
Scott Morrison has seized on the IMF support for cuts in corporate taxes. But just before we get too carried away, what the IMF have actually said is :
Now, Scomo could you tell us how you plan to fund these taxcuts or are they to be unfunded ??????
In a nutshell Barnaby and the COALition are crooks.
Gun-toting teachers, is Trump for real.
Terry2, the govt, or should I say MSM, only need to convince just over 50% of voters that making average workers poorer is a good idea and we will end up with a higher GST rate. The IMF idea is a neo-conservative con and they can keep it for themselves as far as I’m concerned.
The sickening apologists piece on Barnyard and Whatsername in today’s Herald has them pleading with the public to move on because it’s distressing for them and their unborn. We’ve been told that the new missus has been a media advisor so brilliant that she got two media jobs with other pollies because she was immensly qualified and experienced yet, somehow, this brilliant woman couldn’t foresee the media storm over her affair with the Beetrooter!! WTF?
John Lord
I thought “oh, no, not another article about Joyce”… however you have returned to the real problem with Joyce, his greed and corruption.
This is why he needs to resign, not just from his position as leader of the Nats but as Deputy PM.
His most destructive piece of economic and environmental vandalism has to be his actions on the Murray-Darling basin – while there is much more for which he needs to be made accountable. The Murray-Darling is a vital artery through south-eastern (roughly) regional Australia and desperately requires care and maintenance to ensure this river system’s viability into the future.
While being a fool is not illegal, Barnaby has committed acts of deliberate corruption. That his party AND Malcolm Turnbull continue to support this man, they are in turn part of the breach of public trust.
Terry2, WHOOPS the IMF has let the cat out of the bag – GST increase, Malcolm’s thought bubble from several years ago makes a triumphant and unwelcome return
I think most of the articles here about Joyce have been about the real problem(s).
With regard to the article calling for all of us to leave Joyce alone, as Katherine Murphy points out, it is rather ironic that you call in the media to give an interview to tell the media to leave you alone.
Joyce has been more than happy to use the media to parade his family values in the past. He has spoken about them at length. For most of us, his proclamations were irrelevant. Why should a politician be dictating to us what happens in our own homes?
But now Barnaby tells us this we need to move into 2018 where his sort of family situation is no big deal.
Barnaby lecturing us to move into 2018?????? Oh the irony!
And then we have Vikki trotting out her payslips to show us that, whilst she did get a payrise in her new jobs, she was only getting $138,000, not $191,000 as had been reported.
FFS. does she not realise that a 6 figure salary is beyond the dreams of most people?
Barnaby is concerned that his son is being viewed as less worthy. Oh, does he mean like the children of single parents felt when told they were more likely to be criminals or promiscuous? Or those ‘poor’ kids of same-sex parents who are somehow mistreated by not living with both biological parents?
If Barnaby just sails on through this, the countless examples of ineptitude and turpitude, then it gives a green light to all those in parliament to do whatever they please. be a good salesman and you will be held to no account. Our jobs in parliament are far more important than any standards.
I agree, Kaye Lee. However, that is not true of most other media.
I was not disparaging any of your work (far from it), or that of other AIM contributions. Only those who are fixated on Barnaby’s sex life.
That the MSM has failed the public, yet again, merely adds to awful truth much of the 4th estate has been neutered by government and the corporatists they serve.
Wha??!! Stroof Mal!! is there nowhere closer to home to invest?? These guys never cease to amaze.. just had to put this somewhere… https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-21/trump-infrastructure-plan-gets-2-trillion-nudge-from-australia
ianmac – that is just the strangest thing to be reading, especially when the Gubmint mantra is lower corporate tax rates to attract investment.
This part just made me laugh maniacally – electricity networks anyone? That does not qualify as a success
Australian officials have pointed to their own success in selling or leasing public assets to finance new construction without incurring new debt — a concept known as asset recycling.
Nope. Not doing anything to save Barnaby. He can go straight to gaol as far as I’m concerned, and the sooner the better. Disgusting creature!
The secret agreement between the Liberals and Nationals underlies all that is rotten about the current Federal Government. What has Turnbull agreed to allow the Nationals to have and do so that his rocky Prime Ministership can somehow limp on?
Contrary to what people say. If you closely look at his record he is far from being a good politician. Out of 10 I could seriously only give him a 2.
Short and to the point thank you John Lord. Whilst all the goss. of a personal nature has been titillating, the ‘ business ‘ end of B.J’s conduct (in concert with the Government) is where the real $ Value $ is to be found – from the Aus. citizen’s perspective !
@ Kaye Lee February 22, 2018 at 1:06 pm
The factors covered in your post ( to my way of thinking ) are valid and , I found the Fairfax article (apparently set up by B.J’s own advisers) to be contemptuous in it’s presentation to the reading public – tea towel… two storey ‘bachelor pad’ … pose … pose !.
And I’m in complete agreement with you about the $138,000 ( + Super etc. ) is certainly not within the reach of many Australian single salary earners.
On another (related) matter, the B.J. affair coverage has prompted me to wonder just what a Federal Government Minister’s ‘average’ day can really look like ? … covering the hours in, and away from parliament , overall remuneration , use of cars,. private aircraft, o/seas trips etc.etc. I’m starting to understand that a feeling of appreciation of an ‘elite’ lifestyle could develop among Ministers in this (elevated) atmosphere !
I constantly read comments along the lines of ‘out of touch ‘ and I’m starting to think it would be worthwhile exploring their potential ‘ Ivory Tower ‘ existence relative to ( say ) Australian middle class values ? Not from a ‘finger pointing’ / critical perspective – no gloss, and no picking on ‘ stuff ‘ just for the sake of it !.
With the possibility of a Labor Government coming about , an objective summary might be worthwhile ?