The Senate might be thoroughly sick of Pauline Hanson's antics - on Tuesday it suspended her for seven days over her appearance in a burqa - but she's Barnaby Joyce's kind of politician.
Author
- Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Both are attention-seekers, and they know how to get the publicity they crave and need.
Days ahead of their likely political nuptials, Pauline cooked Barnaby a wagyu steak on her office sandwich press, serving it with a nice salad. Then (of course) the tableau appeared in the media.
Monday had already been eventful for the One Nation leader. After she was denied permission to introduce a bill to ban the burqa and other face coverings, she went to her office, grabbed her burqa (there from a similar stunt in 2017) and appeared back into the chamber in the garb.
Predictably, there was cross-chamber outrage; she was told to leave and take off the garment. When she refused, the Senate dealt with the situation by adjourning for more than an hour and a half.
On Tuesday it returned to the matter, with the government moving a censure against Hanson. The opposition tried unsuccessfully to water it down. But then in a decisive cross-party vote, 55-5, it was carried.
Hanson was given five minutes to explain or apologise. She told the chamber, "senators in this place have no respect for the Australian people, when they have an elected member who wants to move something and to represent them and have their say".
Unmoved, the Senate then banished Hanson for seven days, which means she will miss the start of next year's sitting.
Asked about the burqa affair, Joyce defended her and shrugged the incident off as "a bit of theatre in politics".
But he didn't want to get drawn too far.
"You talk to Pauline about it […] I'm not her dad. Go talk to her about it."
Whatever Joyce really thinks about the burqa antic, it's not likely to give him second thoughts about his apparent course.
One Nation is welcoming - a contrast to the Nationals where he has been relegated to the backbench without a shadow portfolio - and the minor party is riding on a polling high, rating 15% in the latest Newspoll.
Joyce said he will wait until the end of the week to announce his plans. "I just don't want much of a circus," he said, apparently seriously. "We'll get to the end of the week and we'll make a decision then."
Assuming Joyce marches out the door, some among the Nationals will say good riddance. He's been more than half way out for weeks, having declared he would not attend party meetings.
But for some Nationals, particularly Matt Canavan, who has always supported him and formerly worked for him, Joyce's actions are a stab in the individual, as well as the collective, back.
"I mean, come on, Barnaby, do you really want to go and join the circus, or do you want to stay in a real team that's really focused on delivering change?" Canavan said on Tuesday.
"The question is this. Is this move from Barnaby about the Australian people, or is it about himself?"
Joyce answered Canavan's question decisively.
"I'm a front row forward and front row forwards wanna be in the middle of the ruck and that's where I like to play," he said. "And […] if I'm staying in politics that's where I'm going to play," he told Sydney radio. "I don't like being sort of stuck down the back."
With bridges in flames behind him in the Nationals, Joyce sees One Nation as the opportunity to play "in the middle of the ruck" and potentially, eventually to captain the team.
How will the Pauline Hanson-Barnaby Joyce show play out? Hanson, 71, who's term ends in 2028, said on Tuesday that she will run for another term. It's unclear when she will cede the leadership. If things dragged on too long, Joyce could become quite impatient.
And when leadership is concerned there can be many a slip between cup and lip.
Whether these two drama-creating, dominant personalities can co-exist without a blow up will test each of them.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
