Brendan might have gained a spot in modern political folklore, but so has Barnaby, the Senate’s rabble-rouser extraordinaire, who claims to have the ‘balance of power’ in the Senate.
He’s been called everything from political neophyte, raving recalcitrant, apprentice parliamentarian to accidental working-class hero, heavy price fighter, piss-and-wind rebel and even a Christmas turkey. Despite his critics in parliament, he knows what buttons to push to make headlines, as the Courier Mail (“Xmas message has hollow ring”) suggests. “Barnaby Joyce didn’t save Christmas. He says he did. But don’t believe his spin”.
In August, the Media Monitors agency reported that Barnaby Joyce held the no. 1 spot as the biggest domestic news story — mentioned 4900 times in the media. Unsurprisingly, 2nd place for most talked-about issue went to Voluntary Student Unionism — mentioned 2900 times. From reading various 2005 reviews, Barnaby has also been sporadically featured.
Simon Cottle in “Rethinking News Access” writes that journalists “fit new situations into old definitions”. Such “old definitions”, he proposes, inspire a mythological game of categories, like hero/villain or good/bad.
But what about the battle between Left versus Right? News outlets continually frame issues in light of political labels - either deliberately or subconsciously. For those who didn’t rejoice the reforms of Nelson, Joyce was breath of fresh air. Students, in particular, relied heavily on the politics of Barnaby, signing petitions and campaigning against VSU alongside his penstrokes. For that reason, he’s become some left-wing spectacle for the media.
In a profile produced by the ABC, Barnaby was questioned on the politics of cross-flooring:
Well certainly and we’ll get to that in just a moment, but you know, I’m interested to know whether you were surprised when you found that even those on the left were heralding you as a political hero?
Senator Barnaby Joyce: Yes it’s always a bit of a concern when people on the left herald you as a political hero because you want to make sure that you’re not being manipulated to go out of your political prism and go into another side that’s represented by another party.
Is the temptation there, is that what you’re saying?
Senator Barnaby Joyce: No, I don’t think so. I mean I’ve always been, that’s why I’m in the national party I’ve always been probably a socially conservative but a little bit more economically to the left of the liberal party. We understand that there are times where the market works and does a very good job and there’s times where it falls flat on its face and leaves people hurt.
In spite of all the attention devoted to Barnaby, he’s been noticeably damned by the media. It’s quite remarkable how political fights are invoked by the media, indeed producing a vision of good and evil. In early December, the final days before VSU was passed, the Herald ran a story titled “VSU ‘ revenge of the nerds’”. This certainly is only one of many articles that inflame the tensions between political rivals: in the red corner we have dissidents Beazley and Joyce, whilst in the blue corner, reformer Nelson. And it gets quite personal:
”What do we hear from Brendan? That he doesn’t like the student politicians he used to mix with 20 years ago. Well bully for him,” Mr Beazley told reporters.
”This is revenge of the nerds from Brendan Nelson.
To be continued.
