Katter’s Party puts the hard word on Barnaby

Image: Katter posing, this time for a photo. Source; Courier Mail

Bob Katter, or at least his party has offered National Party Senate leader Barnaby Joyce an invitation to join them.  In an effort to lure him, they have made the offer of finding him a lower house seat, which is interesting, as the only one they have is the one occupied by Katter himself.  Barnaby has tried to move to the House of Representatives, which might give him a shot at deputy PM. 

The pretext they give though is Joyce’s opposition to the sale of Cubby Station to Chinese interests, one of the few areas where he has been dead wrong.  Cubbie has been in receivership since 2009 with debts of over $300 million.  Joyce wanted the government to ‘acquire’ it and break it up into smaller lots and sell it.

Should the breakup of the station be the best solution to the problem, there is no reason for government to be involved as private enterprise has all the expertise and capital required for such an action.  While many Australians are concerned at the degree of foreign ownership here, the idea of federal takeovers should send a shiver down the spines of most primary producers.

It looks like Barnaby is staying put:

 Katter's Australia Party is trying to get the Nationals Senator to join the fledgling party, saying it is the only way Senator Joyce can protect the interests of Australia's farms and agricultural industry. 

Party president, Max Menzel was full of praise for Senator Joyce's recent outspokenness over Coalition support of the sale of Cubbie station."Barnaby made a courageous public stand within the LNP against the sale of Cubbie Station but it will be to no avail if he remains a member of a party that supports this foreign takeover," Mr Menzel said recently. … 

… Senator Joyce's reaction to the party membership invitation was in typical Barnaby style. 

"They want me to grab a big hat, so I've gone down to my local country clobber store and told them I want to look more substantial than Bob Katter and they've set me up with a sombrero and two bandanas and two Colt .45s and my horse is called Chocolate Thunder, and here I come.”

 Katter may need to invite Barnaby out to a few candle lit dinners, walk him about under the full moon, hold his hand, and whisker sweet nothings in his ear for a while.