SHADOW Agriculture and Regional Affairs Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has fired an early warning shot at the potential leadership style of his counterpart and incoming National Party leader Barnaby Joyce.
Mr Joyce is expected to win the leadership unopposed at a party-room meeting tonight following the announcement of Warren Truss’s resignation today.
In a speech to the House of Representatives in Canberra, Mr Fitzgibbon said Mr Truss was “a good man” who had put good public policy ahead of politics.
Mr Fitzgibbon said he respected and liked the outgoing leader and as a rural member also shared his passion for rural and regional policy.
“Warren Truss, as I said, is a good man who I believe has always tried his very, very best to put good public policy on equal ranking if not ahead of good politics and I think that’s something that’s increasingly important in this place,” he said.
Mr Fitzgibbon said Mr Truss’s attitude to good public policy was something that had also contributed towards building “significant trust and respect” in parliament.
He said it was also a good time for the Deputy Prime Minister to move on after having “a good innings”.
“He leaves at a good age – still young enough to do fun things,” he said.
“I hope and trust he leaves here with good health and therefore an opportunity to spend many good years with wife Lynn and the rest of the family.
“In Warren Truss’s case it goes without saying he has been respected across the political divide here - not just because he has led a political party but because he has earned that respect.”
Mr Fitzgibbon said it wasn’t designed to be a political point but the next phase of his speech seemed to deliver an obvious warning about his views of Mr Joyce’s likely leadership credentials.
“Expectations in rural and regional Australia are on the rise and they are expecting more from our politicians, or their politicians, than transactional politics and the spin they too often hear,” he said.
“And that’s a challenge not only for the National Party but a challenge for all of us who represent rural and regional seats.
“I’m not saying for a moment that Warren Truss has not been capable of new and innovative thinking – he has.
“But certainly this is a challenging time when the expectations are much higher and people are expecting a much higher standard of public debate.
“They want to see us working better together and thinking at a higher level and putting some of the transactional politics behind and developing good progressive policy and structural change - transformational politics rather than transactional politics.”
Transactional politics has been described as essentially horse trading where votes are exchanged for promises in support of individual outcomes; to the detriment of good policy that advances national interest – the opposite of transformational politics.
Late last year, Mr Fitzgibbon indicated he’d abandoned the bipartisan agenda he’d promised to take into the agricultural role, due to frustrations at Mr Joyce’s portfolio management.
“Barnaby makes (bipartisanship) very hard because he’s more interested in my view in playing to his natural constituencies than tackling some of the hard reforms the sector needs to go through to ensure that those opportunities are fully capitalised on,” he said.
Mr Joyce has responded to Mr Fitzgibbon’s attacks by questioning Labor’s record on agriculture and lack of rural members with genuine knowledge and experience of the sector and electoral impacts.
Asked today if he would continue shadowing Mr Joyce if he was the next National Party leader, Mr Fitzgibbon said, “I could think of nothing better”.
In his speech, Opposition leader Bill Shorten praised Mr Truss for his personal qualities.
“Your warmth; you are dry, you are often self-deprecating,” he said.
“You’ve got a great sense of humour, and you have an ability to craft a meaningful, empathetic response.
“Now we look forward to your successor’s contribution – with some great interest, and no little trepidation.
“Warren, you have been a tireless servant of your constituency, a proud advocate for country people and a strong leader of the party you have always loved.
“You have earned a fulfilling, peaceful and healthy retirement with your loving wife Lynn.
We wish you both well for what the future brings you.”
