Barnaby Joyce resigns from Nationals

New England parliamentarian Barnaby Joyce announced his resignation from the National Party last week.

Mr Joyce made the announcement in a brief statement to the House of Representatives. Earlier in the week, Mr Joyce met with One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson for a dinner in her parliamentary office.

While there was initial speculation Mr Joyce would defect to One Nation, he will sit in parliament as an independent.

Mr Joyce had been with the National Party for 30 years and told press assembled in Canberra it was a decision he didn’t take lightly.

When asked about his intentions with One Nation, he said hadn’t made a decision.

“As I have stated, the relationship with the elected leadership of The Nationals in the House of Representatives has become dysfunctional and discordant over a long period of time and behoves neither to continue on in this form,” Mr Joyce said.

“I have been asked numerous times both directly and indirectly to leave, so I suppose I shall now do that. Since initially announcing this five weeks ago, there has been no communication with either the Leader or Deputy Leader of The Nationals apart from a 90 second phone conversation.

“Oddly enough, none of this is really important in the scheme of things. What is vastly more important is how do we stop the destruction of our rural land with intermittent power precincts? How do we help the poor with the cost of living that is beyond their capacity to pay for? How do we prepare for a totalitarian regime such as Communist China that is becoming increasingly provocative towards Australia every day? How do we get doctors into regional towns and hospitals? How do we build the infrastructure the builds the strength in the nation’s balance sheet?

“For me being a discordant voice in the furthest corner of the back bench of the Coalition in Opposition is not giving me the capacity to give my best endeavours to have an effect on this.”

Mr Joyce acknowledged that his decision will “create great hurt for so many”.

“I am so deeply sorry for that, but I hope over time people realise that it wasn’t as dramatic as first thought, the world moves on and, after a period of reticence, if we were friends before we will become friends again,” he said.

During a press conference outside parliament, Mr Joyce praised the National Party members.

“The membership of the National Party are wonderful people, and that’s what hurts me so much,” he said.

Mr Joyce’s decision was met with disappointment from within the party, with Nationals leader David Littleproud saying he had broken the contract he made with the people of New England at the 2025 election.

Mr Joyce was comfortably re-elected, with a slight increase in both his first preference and two-candidate preferred result. He holds his electorate on a 67 per cent margin to Labor’s almost 33 per cent.

“It is disappointing for the people of New England and disappointing for the loyal National Party members who tirelessly volunteered over the past two decades to support his political ambitions,” Mr Littleproud said.

“The Nationals supported Barnaby through the tough times, including during his darkest moments.

“The original conversation I had with Barnaby was to encourage him to stay in our party room and that I believed he could continue to make a contribution to our party room.

“Barnaby made it clear to me he wanted time and space to consider his future and asked me to respect that.

“I respected that request but made sure my public statements reflected my desire for him to stay.

“Barnaby has chosen to walk away from The Nationals’ team – a strong team that fights for regional Australia and delivers genuine solutions for regional Australians in government.

“The Nationals will continue to fight for regional Australia and work as a team to get things done for local communities.”