In his first public statement since it was revealed he plans to quit the Nationals at the next election, Joyce pointed to Littleproud’s comments on driving generational change in the party with the newest shadow cabinet as one of the reasons for his decision.
After succeeding Warren Truss as party leader and deputy prime minister in 2016, Joyce maintained those roles under both Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, also holding several ministerial positions on agriculture, water, Northern Australia, and infrastructure and transport.
He resigned his leadership and ministerial roles in February 2018, after acknowledging that he was in a relationship and expecting a child with a former staffer.
But in June 2021, he defeated his successor to once again take the leadership and the title of deputy prime minister. However, that only lasted a year, and when Labor regained the Treasury benches in the 2022 federal election, another leadership spill saw him replaced by Littleproud.
After it was leaked that he was in talks with Pauline Hanson to join One Nation, he sent a statement to party members over the weekend saying, “My relationship with the leadership of the Nationals in Canberra has, unfortunately, like a sadness in some marriages, irretrievably broken down.”
Joyce also said the party’s “position in continuing to support net zero,” which he claims will damage farmers and the economy, “makes continuing in the Nationals Party Room under this policy untenable.”
“The atmospherics in the party room, where I am seated in the far corner of the coalition in the chamber, means I am seen and now turning into a discordant note. That is not who I want to be,” he wrote.
Speaking to Seven’s Sunrise programme, Joyce said the breakdown in the relationship between himself, Littleproud, and others in the party was not “conducive to a harmonious party room for them or, to be honest, for me. I think it is playing silly games of charades that everything is fine and anything is going well—it wasn’t.
“The best thing to do there is to move on, which is what I can do.”
He did not rule out joining One Nation after finishing up as the MP for New England when the next election arrives in about two and a half years, and revealed he spoke to leader Pauline Hanson on Sunday night.
“I did ring her last night because seeing they [the media] are talking about us, we may as well speak to each other rather than through the media,” he said, “There was nothing locked-in, nothing ... Let’s take it down a step. I have not joined One Nation.”
Littleproud said on Sunday that he was confident other Nationals MPs wouldn’t follow Joyce’s lead amid internal tensions within the coalition, particularly over climate and immigration policy.
He said he would reach out to Joyce to reassure him that he has a constructive role to play.
“We'll be talking to Barnaby,” he said. “We want to make sure that his contribution is a valued one within our party room, as everybody’s is.
“It’s the collective of the National Party that determines the policy settings, and sometimes our policies take a little bit longer.”
