Say What You Want About The Man, But Barnaby Joyce Is Going To Absolutely Shit It In This Election

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT

As the media and political class edge even closer to their own version of grand final week, speculation and punditry is in overdrive.

Who will win the 2025 Federal Election. Poll numbers say one thing, but history has shown that poll numbers can be defied.

Will Federal Opposition leader Peter Dutton pull off a Scomo-style ‘Miracle’ election victory, or will he perform as badly as he is predicted to and force the Coalition deep into wilderness.

This uncertainty is only fuelled by the fact that Dutton has dropped behind drastically in the race to Prime Minister, after being tipped as the clear winner at the back end of 2024.

However, Albanese has surged ahead in the final weeks of the campaign, after delaying the election until after the RBA’s rate cut. This bounce back was very much aided by a series of near-fatal gaffes from the Liberals that has triggered bitter in-fighting within the Coalition – as well as a distinct lack of policy and unavoidable comparisons to Trump’s Republican Party.

With pre-polling beginning today, things could go very badly for Dutton indeed – as he struggles to come up for air in a bumbling campaign that will be over in less than two weeks.

Now he’s staring down the barrel of losing up to 10 blue-ribbon seats to Independent local candidates. Labor is also projected to claw an even bigger majority in the lower house – with the betting odds plunging drastically over the last month.

However, in North-West NSW, things remain pretty steady.

The fact of the matter is, while the Liberal Party panics over how to best pitch themselves to the Australian voters, the most popular MP in the National Party is going to absolutely shit it in.

Even as the smaller, slower-talking little brothers of the Coalition, the National Party are not facing the same level of voter revolt.

Aside from the Battle of Coffs Harbour, where Nationals MP Pat Conaghan is in the fight of his political career against the formidable Independent opponent Caz Heise, the rest of the dark green electorates look to stay the same.

And in the New England, it looks like Barnaby might even do better.

As Peter Dutton tries his best to not look like he has anything to do with the former Deputy PM, Barnaby’s voters appears to be very willing to nail their flag to the man from Woolbrook.

Say what you want about him, but Barnaby Joyce might just be the most electable man in Australia. And as someone who defeated a wildly popular independent to hold his seat, it seems he just doesn’t have the same problems as these inner-city suits that are desperately trying to distance themselves from him.

He’s had his hiccups. But he keeps turning up.

He always spoke too loud and laughed too often, maybe drank too many glasses down. And perhaps his clothes were older than he realised, but it’ll be shame for all concerned when he leaves town.