‘Traumatic’: Joyce has frustrations, Hanson not buying

Grace Crivellaro, Farid Farid and Stephanie Gardiner | October 21, 2025

Barnaby Joyce isn’t making any imminent moves to jump ship from the Nationals, as One Nation leader Pauline Hanson denies the maverick MP is being groomed to replace her.

The New England MP admits he has an ideological overlap with the right-wing minor party that includes his rejection of a net-zero emissions reduction target.

But he remains a member of the Nationals, presumably until the next federal election when he plans to leave his NSW electorate, and will still be involved in policy debate in the party room.

“I’m not a member of One Nation, I have not asked for a membership form,” Mr Joyce told reporters in Tamworth on Tuesday.

“It’s been a pretty traumatic issue. I’m still basically a member of the National Party.”

He likened his relationship with the Nationals leadership to a broken down marriage and said he wants any separation to be cordial.

“Let’s be adults about this and let’s quietly go our separate directions, no throwing the plates around the kitchen,” Mr Joyce said.

“I want to make this very clear, I love the membership that has been so good to me.”

Mr Joyce revealed he spoke with Senator Hanson on Sunday night after his statement to the membership about his soured relationship with Nationals Leader David Littleproud and decision not to stand again for the party was leaked.

But he said, “There was nothing locked in”.

Senator Hanson said she respected Mr Joyce but labelled rumours he would succeed her as leader when she stepped down as an “absolute joke”.

“I haven’t got a foot in the grave yet,” the firebrand told Sky News on Tuesday.

“I respect Barnaby and he has been deputy prime minister, but I also believe people have to earn their stripes.”

Mr Joyce is zealously campaigning for the junior coalition partner to abandon its net-zero emissions commitment as the party conducts a review into the target. 

The Liberals are conducting a separate review into energy and environmental policy, as coalition MPs prepare to gather in Canberra when parliament sits next week.

Moderate and inner city Liberals want stronger climate action with the party decimated in metropolitan areas and losing a swathe of seats to teal independents.

Despite pollsters saying there was no pathway to government for the coalition without these seats, Mr Joyce said pandering to these electorates meant abandoning rural communities.

“There’s been this continual drive to placate or possibly win back the so-called teal seats,” he said.

“Teal seats are marvellous places but when you look at them, the representation – and nothing wrong with it, it’s just a fact – they’re generally university-educated, very wealthy.

“That’s a constituency and deserves to be represented but the more and more and more you move to that constituency, the more and more and more you leave south Tamworth behind.”

Opposition leader Sussan Ley wouldn’t be drawn into Mr Joyce’s decision, saying it was an issue for the Nationals.

She added the coalition’s energy policy would be “in clear contrast to this government’s”, which is committed to net zero.

Mr Joyce said his comments on net zero aren’t an attack on Ms Ley’s leadership.

“I had a long conversation with Sussan, I respect Sussan, all the way through this … she’s been really good.

“I’d hate for this to be seen as some attack on Sussan, it’s not.”

But any move has come with a warning from NSW MP Rod Roberts, who aired scathing fraud allegations about misappropriation of electoral funds by the party’s federal executive under parliamentary privilege in 2023.

Mr Roberts left the political party in August 2023 after four years, saying it was acting “unlawfully and without morals”, accusations Senator Hanson rejected at the time.

“Barnaby is big enough and ugly enough to make his own decisions,” he told AAP.

“It’ll end in tears.”