Analysis: Barnaby Joyce opts for sensation over sobriety in spectacular interview auspol
, Joyce vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a decision – while he was minister for water and agriculture – to buy $79 million worth of water from a company domiciled in the Cayman Islands that was co-founded by Angus Taylor, who is now himself a federal government minister.Joyce, however, did not merely deny any malfeasance.
In years to come, political tragics might use the interview as the basis for a drinking game in which they sip every time Joyce says the word "Labor" or "Lynham" – the Queensland Labor minister Anthony Lynham at the time of the buyback. Any such imbiber would likely require hospitalisation before Joyce is even halfway through.
Throughout the exchange, Joyce's minimisation of his own agency was total. He said it was not the job of a minister to "second guess" department officials by questioning whether their proposed buyback was good value, or inquiring into the beneficiaries of the vendor."You’re not asking about what clothes they wear, you’re not asking who they’re married to - you’re asking if they have water to sell," he said.
"I’m a ... humble old backbencher winning the seat of New England, knocking up corflutes," he protested, as if this ipso facto robbed him of the capacity to formulate a view. "It’s like saying: do you believe that Mrs Smith should vacuum her living room?"
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