Barnaby Joyce says Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has changed, defending his decision to give his preferences to the party’s candidate in New England, Richard Thomas.
“The party of 10, 15 years ago is not the party of today,” he said at a New England candidate forum on Monday night.
“Things change. Mollify.”
Little is known about Thomas, whom the deputy prime minister has put second on his how-to-vote card. Thomas does not appear on One Nation’s candidate page.
Joyce, who holds the seat by a 17% margin, said: “We can’t be everything for everybody.
“We have to be responsible to the nation, and make decisions that are, at times, tough, and be prepared to lose political support, lose votes by reason of making decisions that are tough, because you’re responsible for the whole country.
“If I see … those decisions about a party’s platform are less likely to cause damage to my nation, then they are further up [the preferences].”
Labor’s candidate, Laura Hughes, has preferenced Thomas last.
Joyce refused to say whether he had spoken to Thomas.
Asked why he was preferencing One Nation, Joyce said “I don’t follow what is basically the zeitgeist. I don’t have the Greens last.
“I’m making sure that I look at all the possible platforms and how that works.”
Joyce was joined by Hughes, UAP’s Cindy Anne Duncan, independents Natasha Ledger and Matt Sharpham and the Greens candidate, Carol Sparks. The Liberal Democrats candidate, Pavlo Samios, gave his apologies while Thomas did not respond to the invitation and didn’t provide a photo for the promotional material.
The biggest round of applause of the night went to Ledger, a former Uralla shire councillor and independent, who drew cheers while calling for a federal corruption commission – a reform supported by all candidates except Joyce.
Joyce dismissed the need for a body along the lines of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
“I want to make sure the Australian people know that Canberra is not the sort of cesspit of corruption some people make it out to be,” he said, to laughter in the hall. “We do have legislation that is tailored to deal with this issue.”
Joyce’s opening statement focused on his experience in Canberra and throughout the night he focused on the resources sector and dam projects.
He earned scattered applause, but was overshadowed by the reception for Tamworth locals Sharpham and Hughes.
Hughes, a teacher, invoked the public programs instigated by Labor: Medicare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and the NBN. She focused on education and training for students in the bush.
Hughes was critical of the Dungowan dam project, but did not say if Labor would kill it in government.
“So we’re going to look at the Dungowan dam,” Hughes said. “And how much is it going to cost? Who’s going to pay for it? Who’s going to benefit from it? Are there going to be continuing and ongoing costs that we have to pay? Who gets the water – who owns the water? None of those questions have been answered yet.”
Sparks rose to fame during the black summer bushfires that tore through her shire in 2019. Sparks spruiked free education all the way to university, to be paid for by increasing taxes on billionaires and large corporations, and stressed the importance of emissions cuts to rein in global heating.
“If we keep it at 1.5 degrees, we might survive this,” she said.
Joyce left before the end, without a closing statement, for a “prior engagement” – attending Paul Murray’s Live Pub Test on Sky News at the Family Hotel across town.
Guardian Australia has put questions to Thomas via One Nation’s media spokesman.
