It’s official: former independent Member for New England Tony Windsor is throwing his hat into the ring and trying to unseat its current MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. It’s been speculated for some time that Windsor would try to reclaim the seat he vacated just three years ago, but now it’s legit.
The former farmer is known for his activism around land rights – which makes him popular across the political spectrum in his local area and beyond, given how controversial issues around coal mining are. He says he’s prepping to run a “full-scale, grass-roots campaign” against Joyce.
Joyce was originally represented Queensland in the Senate, but parachuted into Windsor’s old seat. His position as Deputy PM makes it hard for him to talk out against mining interests in the seat, which gives Windsor a bit of an edge.
Also Barnaby is a confirmed weird unit and loose cannon. Here he is regarding an alpaca constituent with utter, utter contempt:
For better or worse, he’s best known for threatening to kill Johnny Depp’s dogs Pistol and Boo after Depp and his wife Amber Heard brought them in on a private plane without observing proper biosecurity protocol. It was a reasonably big deal and has basically cemented Joyce as ‘the dog killer’ among a large portion of the Australian population.
We’ll see how this plays out – but if it means more Tony Windsor gags on Twitter, then so be it.
Breakthrough Morrison housing policy Annoucement : the hungry will be permitted to eat the homeless .
— Tony Windsor (@TonyHWindsor) February 17, 2016
Source: ABC News
Photo: Getty Images / Stefan Postles
