The deputy prime minister says in News Corp interview regional Australians ‘couldn’t really give a ◊◊◊◊’ about city’s strife
Barnaby Joyce has been accused of fuelling country-city divides after he said regional residents “couldn’t really give a ◊◊◊◊” about Melbourne’s pandemic challenges.
The deputy prime minister also faces calls to apologise for saying about the Melbourne CBD: “You can almost smell the burning flesh from here.”
The dumped Nationals minister Darren Chester, who is from regional Victoria, says Joyce, the newly installed leader of the party, should focus on uniting the nation rather than promoting outdated divisions between city and country communities.
Labor demanded that Joyce apologise for the “disgusting” comments, while urging Scott Morrison to “make clear that this is entirely unacceptable from a senior member of his government”.
“The remarks are disgusting, divisive and unworthy of the office of the deputy prime minister, indeed of any holder of public office,” said Andrew Giles, a Labor frontbencher from a suburban Melbourne seat.
Joyce, who promoted his supporters and dumped opponents such as Chester in a cabinet reshuffle on Sunday, was asked during an interview with News Corp Australia whether the nation needed to move on from the idea of having zero Covid-19 cases.
“It’s like saying I want zero cases of flu. It’s not possible,” Joyce told News Corp’s Sunday tabloids.
“It’s like saying I want zero cases of measles mumps. We’re going to shut the borders for that? It’s just not possible. You have to learn how live with it. How to manage it. What happens when next year we need to get universities going again, what, you close all the f----s down do you?”
When asked by the journalist to reflect on whether this approach would cause problems in Melbourne, Joyce replied: “Of course. But in country areas we couldn’t really give a ****. We’ve got record exports of coal. Record exports of beef. But we look at Melbourne, and go, you can almost smell the burning flesh from here.”
Giles, who is Labor’s spokesperson for cities and is also the acting shadow minister for regional development, said Joyce’s comments would be received “very badly” in Melbourne.
“People in Melbourne have done it tough and right now I’m thinking of those around the country who are also feeling anxious. The deputy prime minister should extend the same courtesy,” Giles said.
“People may have seen Barnaby Joyce as something like a harmless joke but now we’re seeing something that is entirely unworthy of Australia’s deputy prime minister.
“It’s not hard to show leadership, it’s not hard to show empathy, and all he seems to have done is set out to offend a large group of people for no particular reason.”
