Add Category
Updated
One of Barnaby Joyce's state Nationals colleagues has said the former deputy prime minster should get out of politics.
- NSW state MP Kevin Humphries says Barnaby Joyce needs to "get on with his life somewhere else"
- It comes as the former deputy prime minister faces sustained pressure from colleagues to reconsider his future
- Mr Joyce has maintained he intends to run for New England at the next election
Mr Joyce quit the party leadership and his ministry position in February when news of a sexual harassment complaint against him emerged.
Yesterday he told the ABC the complaint had been "hanging over [his] head for too long" and that he wanted it resolved as soon as possible.
But he has also been under pressure from some of his colleagues to reconsider his entire political future, after he gave a paid interview about his new baby with his partner and former media adviser Vikki Campion.
Mr Joyce has declared he intends to stand again for the federal seat of New England.
However Kevin Humphries, who represents the NSW seat of Barwon that covers some of the same region as Mr Joyce's electorate, said he had picked up a "general sentiment" among state and federal Nationals and also at a grassroots level that Mr Joyce should leave politics.
Mr Humphries said the party and the locals had had enough.
"People like myself have been quite supportive of Barnaby up to this point. People have been very patient with him," Mr Humphries said.
"People have given him advice on maybe how he might manage a difficult personal situation, but it is now just a bumbling soap opera."
He said the drama around Mr Joyce was distracting to the community who wanted a focus on other issues, particularly the drought response.
"We have got some big chunky infrastructure projects like the inland rail — they are the conversations that need to be out there in the general domain, not some celebrity soap opera that is just clogging up the airwaves," Mr Humphries said.
"There are plenty of other good people that could run for the seat of New England."
Mr Humphries said the Member for New England needed to, "get on with his life somewhere else".
"If Barnaby had his political radar switched back on, he would know that the signs are not good and we need a transition into something better," he said.
"If you can't put your heart and soul into the people that make up your constituency, and self interest takes over then that is a real problem.
"There is one way of dealing with that and that is to get out."
Mr Joyce has been contacted for comment.
Topics: federal-government, federal-parliament, state-parliament, government-and-politics, rural, tamworth-2340, nsw, dubbo-2830, orange-2800, australia
First posted