Do we like Barnaby Joyce?
Our score: 2 out of 10. A long run of votes and words against trans people, marriage equality and climate action, with only a little real good set against it.
Joyce grew up on a sheep and cattle farm in New England, NSW, one of six kids, and he is Catholic. He studied financial administration in Armidale, worked as a rural banker and accountant, then opened his own practice in St George, Queensland. He won a Queensland Senate seat in 2004 and made his name as a maverick, crossing the floor 28 times before he became a minister. In 2013 he moved to the lower house seat of New England, and by 2016 he was Nationals leader and deputy prime minister.
His fall came in two acts. In 2017 the High Court ruled him ineligible for parliament as a dual citizen, because he held New Zealand citizenship through his father, which he said he hadn't known. He won the by-election back with nearly two-thirds of the vote. In February 2018 News Corp reported his relationship with a former staffer; he denied it began while she was on his payroll, Malcolm Turnbull called it a “shocking error of judgment”, and Joyce quit as leader.
A formal sexual harassment complaint against him was confirmed the day before he quit as leader. He called it spurious and defamatory, and a Nationals internal investigation made no finding. In 2021 a WA Labor MP told her state parliament, under parliamentary privilege, that he has a history of groping women. He called that “defamatory and spurious”. Both are allegations, and he denies them.
On the harm test, the record is long. They Vote For You has him consistently voting against what it calls transgender rights and protections, and almost always against marriage equality, while backing a plebiscite and celebrants' right to refuse. In 2018 he argued faith schools should keep their exemptions to discriminate against trans students, and his own leader said he didn't want to see any child discriminated against. Where you land depends on whether you read that as religious freedom or as exclusion of kids.
On the planet, he has campaigned to scrap the 2050 net zero target, calling it “insane” and saying it won't work because the world isn't taking part. They Vote For You has him consistently voting against the Paris Agreement and against criminalising hate speech. At a 2024 wind farm rally he urged people to “load that magazine” at the ballot box. Albanese asked what he'd have to do to lose his job, and Joyce apologised for the metaphor.
After 30 years he quit the Nationals in November 2025, weighing a NSW Senate run for One Nation, and Nationals leader David Littleproud accused him of breaking “the contract he made with the people of New England”. In July 2026 he argued Hanson's podcast chat with Robinson, a UK anti-immigration figure with multiple criminal convictions, didn't mean she endorsed Robinson's views. In August he said an anti-gay video from a One Nation candidate didn't represent the party, and he also said it has plenty of gay members.