Barnaby Joyce attacks Tim Wilson and Liberal Party after taking One Nation treasury role

Barnaby Joyce has criticised the Liberal Party for losing its “strong sweep” in economics after confirming he will take up the One Nation treasury spokesperson role.

Mr Joyce, who defected from a decades-long career with the Nationals to join One Nation in November, claimed on Wednesday he had the credentials to lead the populist party’s economic agenda.

“We can’t have (One Nation leader Pauline Hanson) trying to cover everything, and within that divvy … I am focusing on Treasury. I don’t think that’s unreasonable,” he told Sky News.

Mr Joyce went on to cite his experience as an accountant and business owner, as well as his relationships with “some of the biggest business people in Australia”, to justify his ability to do the job.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good resume,” he said.

He accused the Liberals, specifically shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, of not properly prosecuting arguments against the federal budget.

“And the Liberal Party, whose strong sweep used to be economics, used to be treasury, it is now not,” Mr Joyce said.

“I’m not going to give a personal attribute to Mr Wilson, but I would say that his training is more in the fine arts than it is in economics.”

Earlier, Environment Minister Murray Watt accused One Nation of mudslinging after the populist party released an advertisement aimed at toppling Anthony Albanese as part of an anti-Labor campaign funded by a new multimillion-dollar war chest.

One Nation’s Fire the Liar campaign started as an online fundraiser that Senator Hanson claimed raised almost $4m in a matter of days.

These funds have bankrolled a TV advertisement of the same name that is set to air during the State of Origin on Wednesday. It criticises the Prime Minister for what One Nation claims are broken promises made to the Australian people.

One Nation unveils the television advert for its ‘Fire the Liar’ campaign

Senator Hanson flagged last week the campaign would also include “giant banners that will fly beneath helicopters across our major cities”.

However, Senator Watt brushed off concerns about the advertisement and claimed One Nation’s behaviour was in line with “every other political party.”

“Every other political party puts up advertising against their opponents, and One Nation is doing the same thing,” he told Seven’s Sunrise.

Senator Watt later denied Australians had any trust issues with the government, saying people were concerned about dealing with cost-of-living pressures, which he insisted was Labor’s focus.

“We’ll keep demonstrating that that’s the thing we’re focusing on, we’ll let the others sling mud if that’s what they want to do,” he said.

“One Nation’s got to explain why they’re opposing the tax cuts for working Australians that we’re trying to provide now … why they continue to oppose things like the Medicare urgent care clinics and support for bulk billing that we’re providing.

“They’re the kind of things that I think Australians are more focused on than negative advertising. We’ll leave that to them.”

More to come...