Barnaby Joyce taking nothing for granted

“He (Drum) was a good footy player, (he) is a pretty good politician because he had experience at state level and he used that knowledge to affect his game,” Mr Joyce says.

“It’s funny when they retire you almost talk about them as if they're died — they haven’t, they’ve just retired — but he is a very affable guy and that charm also assisted him in being able to get doors opened and get things done, and certainly Shepparton and the current seat of Nicholls has done well with him being there.”

During his visit to Shepparton Mr Joyce spent time with Mr Birrell, a former chief executive of the Committee for Greater Shepparton and committed community member who rolled out his guitar for the first time during the campaign at Dookie on Australia Day, performing an acoustic version of the national anthem.

“I never take anything for granted, not my own seat or anybody else's seat,” Mr Joyce says.

“And I tell them always, never take it for granted, fight for every vote. Be humble, work hard. Have a plan and tell them what you intend to do but be honest with them. If you can't do it, tell them why.”

Mr Joyce returns to the footy analogy when talking about Mr Birrell, who he says is not a rookie.

“We’re lucky because we are not starting with a base player with Sam, he’s pretty switched on already,” he says.

“He knows the area, he lives in the area, his family is in the area, and I think Sam has really thought about why he wants to be in the Nationals and not another party.

“I can see that he has the credentials to go on and be a serious political player; when you talk to him you realise this isn’t a person who is starting at the first floor, he understands the mechanisms of government and as an agronomist he understands where the wealth comes from.”

With the mention of agriculture the conversation pivots to water policy, and particularly the “upwater” that still needs to be recovered under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

As the 2021 political year drew to a close, Mr Drum led a Nationals party-room bid to use legislation to introduce a water watchdog as a mechanism to make critical changes to protect irrigators, especially in Victoria, from buybacks to make up the shortfall.

The bid failed in the Senate, and Mr Drum’s attempt to move the same amendments in the House of Representatives was blocked on a technicality.

Senior Nationals had to side with the government rather than the party room.

Mr Joyce is firm, there will be no water buybacks.

“It’s not on,” he says bluntly. ”Given buybacks destroy towns we shouldn’t do that.”

“The Productivity Commission will come out and say it is the most efficient way to do it, the boffins in the Labor Party will say this is the right thing to do, South Australia will say this should happen, you need a strong National Party to say it isn’t gonna happen.”

Mr Joyce tries to put the water debate in perspective, conscious that in places such as Shepparton it underpins the regional economy.

“People talk about water and farmers, but it is water and hairdressers, they are all connected,” he says.

“If farmers have no water, hairdressers have no clients.

“It is the businesses on the high street in Shepparton that get kicked the hardest, because they lose their cash flow.

“The farmers get the cash for their water, but the businesses lose their customers.”

While the pandemic has increased the attractiveness of regional Australia as a place to live and work, the population shift hasn’t eased the problem of critical labour shortages.

Some are short-term, which is why Mr Joyce said the farm visa scheme was his first priority after regaining the Nationals leadership.

“The way the world works now, whether it’s Mexico and the United States, Philippines and a whole host of countries in Asia, Europe and the UK, people who need the money work for it and send it back home. It is a win-win situation in regional areas whether it is Shepparton or Tamworth,” he says.

He says it is “inner city elites” with little understanding of the issue that attack the overseas worker schemes for taking Australian jobs.

“Australians don’t want the jobs, they don’t want to be out in 40°C picking peaches” he says.

He laughs as he relates a story told to him by a farmer near Orange who started with 10 workers but by smoko nine had been to the office to say they couldn’t handle it. The farmer went to check on his last remaining local worker and found him lying under the shade of a tree asleep.

Back to water, and Mr Joyce is animated as he reveals the expletives used by a state water minister to describe him. The plain-speaking Nationals leader wears it as a badge of honour.

“That is me standing up for you,” he says.

While Mr Joyce won’t get into specifics, being returned to government at the election would provide the opportunity to renegotiate the Coalition agreement with the Liberal Party and demand a better deal for regional Australia.

“When the Coalition agreement happens, if I have the honour of being leader and we have won the election, as I always do I will walk into the room and say this is what we want,” he says.

Mr Joyce is confident that if elected, Mr Birrell will be equally as strong in representing the people of Nicholls.

“Sam will have the capacity to understand that clearly and say look, I’m respectful of the relationship with the Liberal Party but it isn’t a marriage, it is a business arrangement, and we are going to talk about what you want in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and we’re going to talk about what we want in Shepparton,” he says.