Joyce called up to help LNP chase regional voters
STRAIGHT-shooter Barnaby Joyce will be dispatched to Queensland to help city slicker Tim Nicholls politically bushwhack One Nation and Labor at the upcoming state election.
The Deputy Prime Minister, who calls a spade a shovel, will be called on to do some of the heavy lifting in key re- gional and marginal electorates in a tacitical move also aims to bolster Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s poor standing in parts of the state.
Some tacticians believe that a devastating LNP state election loss could also sound the death knell for Mr Turnbull at the next federal election.
It is unlikely Mr Turnbull will be called on to help Mr Nicholls outside of Brisbane.
Mr Joyce, whose blunt turn of phrase is loved by many Queenslanders, will over the coming months fundraise and visit key electorates to sandbag and steal from Labor. They could include Bundaberg, Burdekin, Hervey Bay, Mirani and Townsville.
The Deputy PM has also moved to mop-up disaffected Labor voters in central Queensland as the ALP tears itself apart over its climate change policies and the coal mining.
The latest Galaxy poll in April showed the Turnbull Government had lost significant ground since the 2016 election. The double-dissolution election left the Federal LNP with a primary vote of 43 per cent but by April it had fallen to 35 per cent. Pauline Hanson’s One Nation soared from 5.5 per cent to 15 per cent during the same time.
LNP president Gary Spence confirmed Mr Joyce would be in hot demand for the upcoming election. .
“We can’t get enough of Barnaby,’’ Mr Spence said yesterday.