Barnaby Joyce lashes out at Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd calling them ‘dipsticks’

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd for recent comments over the diplomatic spat between Scott Morrison and French president Emmanuel Macron. 

Speaking on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, Mr Joyce called the former prime ministers ‘dipsticks’ and ‘pains in the neck’. 

Mr Turnbull called Mr Morrison ‘shameful’ and ‘duplicitous’ over his behaviour towards France when scrapping a $90 billion submarine deal.

‘He’s always been a liar,’ Mr Turnbull said, while attending the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. 

Mr Rudd said Mr Morrison should apologise to Mr Macron for the way the submarine deal had been ditched.

On Sunrise, Mr Joyce used a horse riding analogy to explain his views on Mr Turnbull and Mr Rudd, saying that in politics it’s not how you ride the horse, but how you get off it. 

‘Some people get off it with grace and walk to the rail and sit on the rail … but some people just can’t help themselves. 

‘They keep a foot in the stirrup and get dragged around in the horse manure. 

‘They’ve gone from former prime ministers to current pains in the neck,’ he said.  

He added that if someone walked around a workplace, a morning tea or a pub ‘calling everyone a liar, you’d just look at the person and say “I don’t care what your former job was mate, you’re a dipstick.”‘ 

Barnaby Joyce has called on former prime ministers such as Kevin Rudd (pictured) to behave with ‘some sort of decorum’

Mr Joyce said people should not ‘wander around brandishing those sorts of allegations. You’ve got to have some sort of decorum for the office you held, the nation you led, and act like it.’

The National Party leader called on Mr Turnbull and Mr Rudd to be more careful in how they expressed their opinions, saying they should couch them ‘with subtlety and deference’ to not create a problem.

He said former politicians are supposed to rise above politics. ‘You’re always an idealist as you walk up the hill and you’re more broadminded as you walk down it. But you’re more broadminded with a brain between your ears.’ 

Labor backbencher Joel Fitzgibbon, who is leaving politics at the next election, defended Mr Rudd. ‘Kevin’s made a few comments, he’s called on Scott Morrison to apologise to Emmanuel Macron, but Malcolm Turnbull has been belligerent and personal in his attacks on Scott Morrison, and that’s not good for him and it’s not good for the country.’ 

Mr Fitzgibbon praised the other living former prime ministers. ‘Julia Gillard, Paul Keating, Tony Abbott, John Howard have all demonstrated a capacity to be statesmanlike in retirement, and that’s what all of them should be doing.’

Mr Joyce also said there will not be an election in the next few weeks. ‘I’d put my house on it, you’re not going to have an election before Christmas, that’d be crazy.’ 

He said ‘you just annoy people if you wind them up before Christmas. That’s not going to happen.’

But he added that politicians are preparing for an election which must be held by May at the latest. ‘You can’t fatten the pig on market day, so it’s not surprising you get a lot of people on both sides of politics out on the road right now because they know once Christmas comes people put their fingers in their ears and say “Go away politicians, I don’t want to hear from you for a few weeks.”‘

Mr Fitzgibbon said he thinks the election will be held in March. ‘It would be political suicide for Scott Morrison [to call an election] before Christmas, because you’d almost certainly lose.’