Glowing fit to burst a blood-pressure monitor, Joyce went for the “hold my beer” posture.
Loading
“Mr Speaker, I am sorry that hypocrisy isn’t what is wrong with the mayor, the former mayor of Tamworth,” he snorted.
“Does he not have quite enough letters after his name to be considered worthy by the Labor Party?
“A person who has been in the construction industry for 25 years, he is one of the leading mayors of New South Wales, he has underpinned the growth of one of our great regional cities.”
Thoroughly wound up, Joyce turned conventional class warfare on its head, painting Labor as a party of city snobs.
“Once we have someone from a regional area, the Labor party doesn’t like that: they are not quite good enough,” he seethed.
“The member for Ballarat of all people – to slam a regional person! I am sorry, what would you have said about Chifley? That his train wasn’t big enough?” [Labor’s Ben Chifley was a train driver before becoming prime minister from 1945 to 1949].
The new Speaker, Andrew Wallace, made no attempt to inhibit the deputy prime minister’s tirade.
Joyce grinned approvingly and declared he liked “this bloke” more than previous Speaker Tony Smith.
He was clearly enjoying himself to the point that he couldn’t have cared less that he was all but confirming his hometown supporter, Col Murray, was the next chair of Infrastructure Australia.
Barnaby champions his hometown Mayor, condemning Labor “snobs”
Source: Philippines Alive
