Barnaby Joyce’s performance at the Tamworth Business Chamber’s State of the Nation forum was less a “vision” for regional Australia and more a foghorn blast of hypocrisy, denial, and political opportunism. If Tamworth really were the model for the nation, as he boldly proclaimed, heaven help us—because the biggest thing holding the region back is not water, or power prices, or immigration. It’s Barnaby Joyce.
Let’s start with the most staggering part of his speech: the gleeful celebration of the Liberal Party dumping Net Zero. Barnaby cheered as though abandoning the most basic climate responsibility was some heroic act of leadership.
The rest of the world is moving forward with clean, reliable, affordable energy—and Barnaby is still stuck muttering about “wondrous fairy power,” like a man determined to stay in 1993 forever. It’s embarrassing. And dangerous.
Experts, business leaders, and even major energy investors are crystal clear: backing away from Net Zero drives up power bills, destroys investor certainty, and delays the infrastructure upgrades regional communities desperately need. The Climate Council wasn’t exaggerating when it called the move a “dangerous retreat from reality”—it was being polite.
Then came Barnaby’s favourite pastime: blaming everyone except the people who have actually been in power.
For someone who has spent years in government—including as Deputy Prime Minister—he talks about Tamworth’s problems as though they appeared out of thin air last Tuesday. Water crisis? Skills shortage? Housing shortage? Energy policy chaos? These didn’t materialise overnight. They are the direct result of years of policy neglect and political buck-passing by the very Coalition governments Joyce helped lead.
Joyce decries the shortage of boilermakers, fitters, turners, and nurses—but doesn’t acknowledge the bleedingly obvious: These shortages exist because governments he was part of failed to plan, failed to fund TAFE, failed to invest in training, and failed to deliver coherent regional development.
Instead, he blames “importing the wrong people”—a dog whistle thinly dressed as economic commentary. The truth is far simpler: the Coalition oversaw a migration system tied to short-term political wins and zero long-term workforce coordination. If you want skilled workers, you actually need a skills strategy. Barnaby never delivered one.
And his comments about unemployed people in South Tamworth were not only offensive—they were factually ridiculous.
If Tamworth needs more skilled workers, why has the Coalition repeatedly failed to invest in training and employment pathways for locals? Why were community employment programs gutted? Why was public housing starved of funding? Why was the TAFE sector allowed to collapse? Why were infrastructure plans left in drawers?
Barnaby Joyce has no answers because the failures he pointed to are his failures. His speech was an exercise in rewriting history, using Tamworth as a prop while ignoring the obvious:
- You can’t complain about problems you helped create.
- You can’t whinge about a lack of planning when you refused to plan.
- And you certainly can’t lecture the region about its future when your own policies left it worse off.
And then, of course, came the swipe at renewables—the very industry bringing billions in investment into regional Australia. Barnaby talks about “intermittent fairy power,” while proudly sitting beside the Minerals Council like it’s the 1950s. Meanwhile, communities across New England WANT renewable jobs, WANT cheaper power, WANT modern industry—not more political stunts and fossil-fuel fantasy lectures.
His solution to everything? Say “yes” more. As though attitude, not policy, builds homes, trains workers, or modernises energy grids.
The truth is this: Joyce’s idea of leadership is blaming Labor for the broken windows he smashed himself.
Tamworth deserves better. Regional Australia deserves better. And Australia absolutely deserves better than a man cheering the death of Net Zero while complaining about the consequences of his own neglect.
Barnaby Joyce didn’t deliver for Tamworth when he had power. His latest speech is just proof he still doesn’t have a plan—only excuses, distractions, and tired ideological lines.
If this was his “State of the Nation,” the nation should be worried.
Denise McHugh is an experienced educator in Tamworth. She is Chair of the NSW ALP Education and Skills Committee.
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