Nationals brace for Barnaby Joyce no-show at party room meeting: ‘Wait and see’

Barnaby Joyce’s colleagues will need to “wait and see” if the rogue MP shows up to the Nationals party room meeting on Monday, an Opposition frontbencher says, as politicians return to Canberra for the penultimate sitting week of the year.

Mr Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, was booted from his shadow cabinet position in a move National Party leader David Littleproud put down to a “generational change”.

Both the phrase and the demotion ruffled Mr Joyce’s feathers and left him to lead a crusade against net-zero from the backbench, undermining Sussan Ley and Mr Littleproud’s shared vision of a wholesale post-election review.

Tensions boiled over last week when Mr Joyce announced he would not run for his seat of New England at the next federal election in 2028 and flagged he might not sit in the Nationals party room.

He cited an irreparable breakdown in his relationship with Mr Littleproud.

Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald said on Sunday she did not know whether her old boss would make an appearance at the party room meeting.

“I certainly hope he will be,” she told Sky News, adding that “we have an important job to do”.

“It is a distraction to be talking about anything else but how we protect Australians, wherever they might live.”

Senator McDonald said she hoped Mr Joyce would turn up “because we are on the brink of … progressing policy announcements on the very things that are important to him”.

“I think it would be premature for him to go now, and I certainly hope that he is part of the room,” she said.

Though, she conceded that “we’ll wait and see” if he did show.