Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support Senator Di Natale on this motion and also to agree with Senator Wong that the Deputy Prime Minister's position is untenable. I will go further and say that it was untenable last year. He should have stood down as Deputy Prime Minister and the party should have insisted on it when he was accused of being—and it was proved to be right—a dual national. He should have stood down then and gone to the backbench at least. Senator Canavan did that. He stood alongside the then Attorney-General Brandis and said, 'This is the right thing to do.' Senator Canavan did the right thing and went to the backbench. That's what Mr Joyce should have done back then.

Earlier today, when an earlier motion was being circulated, I would not have supported it because it directly said that the Prime Minister should sack the Deputy Prime Minister. I thought that was not the way it should go. I say to the junior partner of the coalition, the Nationals: it's your job and your responsibility now to do what you think you should do. I'm pleased, in a way, that Mr Joyce has probably taken some of the advice I gave him in a tweet earlier this week, in which I said:

Suggestion for Barnaby. Announce today: "Because of circumstances ,I have asked the Prime Minister to have Foreign Minister Bishop stand in for him when he goes to Washington next week".

A tweeter said to me that the Nationals won't do that because it is common sense. No aspersion on you, Senator Cormann—I realise now that the foreign affairs minister will be overseas next week and you will be the Acting Prime Minister.

But I do think, as Senator Wong said, it is untenable. You can't have this person in there, and you as a government shouldn't want it, either. As a government you've been making some traction, you've had the PM getting some traction and getting ahead of Opposition Leader Shorten in the polls. If he goes to Washington next week and is at the White House, with Mr Joyce as Prime Minister, the headlines will all still be about Mr Joyce.

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

You are wrong, Senator O'Sullivan. There is still plenty in this story; there's plenty of stuff going around. I suspect The Daily Telegraph and Sharri Markson have had stuff in a file marked 'get you Barnaby' going on for months.