EDITORIAL: With Barnaby, you never know

By PAUL MITCHELL, Editor

Barnaby Joyce is generally a love him or hate him political figure.

The Australian media loves his quote-ability, but – like the Federal Government – attacks him fiercely (some would say unfairly).
Regardless of which camp you belong in, Senator Joyce is a refreshing politician, simply because he shoots from the hip, unmuzzled by spin, unlike many of his colleagues from both sides of parliament.
During his relatively short career he has put forward many controversial views, most notably his strong stance against abortion.
More recently, his off the cuff remark that Australia was “getting to a point where we can’t repay” our national debt hit the headlines. (How sadly predictable that Senator Joyce’s comments about the debt made the splash, not the exploding debt figure itself).
For some time Senator Joyce has also been a vocal opponent of the Federal Government’s various stimulus packages, including the eye-poppingly wasteful Building Education Revolution.
Only now is the full extent of this shameful rip-off coming to public attention, thanks largely to Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program last week.
A champion of small business, Senator Joyce will visit the Riverland next week during a tour of the Murray-Darling Basin.
He can be a somewhat unpredictable character, so hopefully the knowledge he gains from his local fact-finding mission will ensure he makes no headline grabbing negative comments about South Australian water rights in the future.
Because with Barnaby, you just never know.