Why Barnaby Joyce wore cowboy boots in Parliament

Barnaby Joyce was making more than a mere fashion statement when he wore a pair of cowboy boots in Parliament on Wednesday.

The New England MP and former deputy prime minister said he donned the boots to protest billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s proposed wind farms.

Mr Joyce said he chose the boots over a pair of RM Williams to send a message to Mr Forrest, who owns the popular brand.

The mining magnate’s Squadron Energy in January started works on the Uungala Wind Farm in New South Wales.

The renewables project is forecast to be the largest in the state upon completion, but Mr Joyce believes it will all just become ‘future obsolete landfill’. 

Mr Joyce told 2GB that he got the idea while attending Beef Week in Rockhampton, Queensland.

‘I don’t mind (Mr Forrest) as a person but these wind farms are swindle factories,’ Mr Joyce told Ben Fordham.

‘They’re just killing us in our in the country.’

The Nationals MP recycled the ‘swindle factory’ comments from previous criticisms of wind farms’ effect on power bills from March.

He claimed that renewables were rorting the lower classes in regional Australia.

‘Where we get walked over and ladies and gentlemen, you get ripped off,’ he said at the time.

Despite Mr Joyce also describing wind farms as ‘reckless renewables’ and ‘filth’, the NSW Government has pushed forward with approvals for more sites.

Mr Joyce said he chose to wear the boots over a pair of RM Williams because it is a company Mr Forrest owns

His spat with the billionaire comes months after Mr Forrest (pictured) in January announced his company, Squadron Energy, would build the largest wind farm in NSW upon completion

Mr Forrest’s Uungala site will be the largest in the state until the massive Yanco Delta project is built, which is projected to be about four-times the size.

‘This is a huge announcement from a major Australian company that is getting on with the job of building the renewable energy capacity required to deliver the green power Australia urgently needs,’ Forrest said in January..

‘The time for talk is over, we are investing right now in Australia’s green energy transition and creating jobs and economic development for regional Australia.

‘No longer will we have to rely on expensive, volatile, planet destroying fuels. We will have secure and inexpensive energy from a huge new industry for Australia.’ 

Projected to create more than 260 jobs and inject about $61million to the local economy, the site is also expected to annually prevent more than 560,000 tonnes of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere.