Pauline Hanson has got a lot of publicity — and allegedly a lot of money — out of One Nation’s “Fire the Liar” campaign.
In her National Press Club address this week, Hanson laid out the case for why Australians should be furious with politicians who say whatever they need to say to get elected and then do something completely different once they’re safely in office.
“Surely the slogan ‘Fire the Liar’ has relevance to millions of Australians,” Hanson said.
“Didn’t they lie to the electorate?”
She went on to accuse Anthony Albanese of misleading voters on everything from the cost of living to tax policy, before landing on the punchline:
“If you lie once, why won’t you lie again and again and again?”
Fair call, Pauline.
But if we’re really firing politicians for misleading voters, can we talk about the bloke you’ve spent the last year campaigning alongside?
Because if we’re handing out medals for saying one thing and doing another, Barnaby Joyce has to be a serious contender for the gold.
Let’s start with the big one. The one that is still causing a lot of pain and grief in this part of the world that has supported him and forgiven him more times than we can remember.
Barnaby Joyce ran for election as a National Party candidate. New England voters elected him as a National Party candidate. Then, not long after the election, he quit the National Party.
That’s a bit like turning up to a wedding, saying your vows, signing the paperwork and then at the reception running off with one of the bridesmaids.
And let’s not pretend this was some sudden revelation that struck him while wandering through the parliamentary corridors.
By the time he announced he was leaving, he’d already stopped attending party room meetings and had publicly ruled out contesting another election (I guess that was a lie too?).
These things don’t generally happen overnight. You don’t accidentally drift out of a political party you’ve spent decades in. The process was clearly underway long before voters were asked to make their choice.
Did New England vote for an independent Barnaby Joyce?
No.
Did New England vote for a One Nation Barnaby Joyce?
Hell no.
They voted for the National Party. Which for many New Englanders is part of their DNA, and something they would not ever change. They were lied to by Barnaby Joyce so that he could be easily re-elected as a National.
Then there’s the small matter of actually representing New England. Because that’s what he said he would do – that is the job he applied for – represent the people of New England.
Did he show up to Torrington after the home invasion? No.
Did he express any care factor at all when connectivity – a federal government responsibility – was clearly identified as the major issue in the fears of the people of Torrington? No.
Has he said anything about McLean Care, also a federal government responsibility? No.
The discussion at a recent Inverell Shire Council Meeting indicated that it took a couple of months of Kate Dight asking him to intervene for them to get a letter from the Minister which doesn’t say much of anything.
Can you name a genuinely local issue affecting New England that he has genuinely taken up and represented us on in the last 12 months?
(Don’t say renewables, the opposition to renewables is highly concentrated around Walcha, and the vast majority of New Englanders both support the REZ and want the money that comes with it in their towns, which is why most of Joyce’s campaigning against renewables happens elsewhere.)
Joyce is spending more time running around the country campaigning for One Nation than dealing with issues in his own electorate. Instead of representing New England, he’s too busy being obsessed with abortion – which isn’t even a federal issue – and other stupid culture war issues that achieve nothing for New Englanders.
While locals are screaming for help with health services, aged care, telecommunications blackspots, roads, infrastructure, housing, and rising costs, our federal member is too busy popping up in other parts of Australia helping Pauline Hanson sell her latest political propaganda. Or probably more accurately, trying to translate Pauline’s deeply offensive and seemingly never-ending hate vomit into something more palatable, as he was on ABC’s 7.30 last night.
There was also the issue of his health.
The day after the election, Joyce announced he had prostate cancer and would be undergoing surgery that very week.
Now, before anyone starts frothing at the mouth, medical information is private. Nobody is entitled to know another person’s health details.
But here’s the thing.
During the campaign he was repeatedly asked about his health.
And he repeatedly gave voters the impression everything was fine.
His staff also repeatedly denied there was any truth to reports he was sick. Months before the election when sources very close to the party leadership told New England Times he may not contest the election because of a health issue, he denied it. During the election when it came up again, we asked again, and we know others did to, and we were told there was no health issue.
Saturday he won the election.
Monday he was in surgery.
Again, that’s his choice, but can you imagine the outrage if Anthony Albanese had spent an entire campaign batting away questions about a health issue and then announced a cancer diagnosis hours after after the polls close, while the votes were still being counted?
Pauline would probably still be holding press conferences about it. Whoever is leading the Nationals and Liberals this week probably would be too.
Again to be clear, his health isn’t the issue: his honesty is. He was asked the question and lied.
Then there is also his drinking and the infamous Canberra footpath incident. Joyce said it was caused by mixing alcohol and medication.
He denied he had a drinking problem.
He claimed to be sober. After initially claiming at the time of the footpath incident he was giving up alcohol for lent, he then did a big press tour saying he had given up alcohol and cigarettes for good.
By the 2025 election campaign, just 9 months after his big press spread about his sober life, he was posting pics of himself beer in hand again. So not much truth in all of that either.
Four big lies that he told New Englanders to get elected last year: he was (not) committed to the National Party, he was (not) going to represent New England, he was (not) healthy, he was (not) sober.
While you may not think that some of those things are anyone’s business – I personally don’t believe politicians get to decide what voters take into consideration – his honesty, or lack therof, is every voter’s business.
Not that he’s exactly a bloke with a spotless record when it comes to truthfulness.
He seemingly lied about the fact his dad was a New Zealand citizen, bizarrely telling the court that he knew his father was born in New Zealand, but didn’t know he was a New Zealand citizen. (That would also make him one of that 51% of Australians with a parent born overseas that Hanson said yesterday is not wanted.)
There was the affair with former-staffer-now-wife Vikki Campion, including the extraordinary choice to deny paternity of their son despite most of Australia having already done the maths.
Then there was the revelation Joyce had “absolutely lied” directly to Malcolm Turnbull when the then prime minister had directly asked about the affair months earlier.
The lies (and reportedly the excessive drinking) have also continued this side of the election.
For example, he has lied about the purpose of travel to rip off the tax payer, and just like Hanson, billed taxpayers for flights to attend private fundraising events aboard mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s superyacht, exactly the kind of donor schmoozing parliamentary travel rules say the public shouldn’t be funding at all.
“The public are sick to the back teeth with these lies,” Hanson said.
Yep.
So absolutely Pauline, let’s fire the liar, starting with that guy standing right beside you.
End Rant.
Dr RK (Kath) Crosby is the CEO of research and strategy company KORE CSR, former strategist for the Australian Democrats, and holds a PhD in political behaviour. She is also a well known migraine and health advocate, and the Publisher of New England Times and North Coast Times.
Got something on your mind? Go on then, engage. Submit your opinion piece, letter to the editor, or Quick Word now.