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Barnaby Joyce, the man who spent a fair portion of 2022 as acting Prime Minister, has today made the bold announcement that he will abstaining from full-strength lager for 40 days.
The Member For New England says he’s given up drinking for the entire duration of lent, after he was filmed lying on a public footpath in Canberra while drunkenly swearing about someone on his phone.
The MP says he found himself in a vulnerable position having mixed alcohol with prescription medication.
“I have given up two things for Lent, one is drinking, and the other one is talking about other people in regards to that,” Mr Joyce told Nine’s Today Show on Monday.
While his National Party colleagues appear to be paralysed in their efforts to reprimand the powerful rural MP, their Coalition allies in the Liberal Party are a little more outspoken about the behaviour of Joyce – who is becoming a rather painful thorn in their side.
12 months out from the next Federal Election, the Coalition is now beginning ramping up their pitch to Australian voters. The goal of winning back the once blue-ribbon and marginal suburban electorates is one that could easily be compromised by the fact that Barnaby Joyce is always moments away from becoming the deputy Prime Minister in any given Liberal Government.
While the pearl-clutching media take great pleasure in ridiculing Joyce, and the rest of Parliament tip toe around what they are really thinking – very little has been said about what the Member For New England’s actual voters think of his most recent scandal.
In an effort to gauge the local sentiment towards Barnaby Joyce, The Betoota Advocate hit the streets of Tamworth and Armidale to ask the residents of North-West New South Wales their thoughts on their local MPs drunken antics.
“So good” said retired sheet metal fabricator, Doyle Manson (68).
“My nephew sent me the video and I just pissed myself. He’d had a skinful the poor bugger. Oh well, that’s our Barnaby”
Local hairdresser, Betty Shannahan (57) said she initially though the video was fake news.
“I thought, that must be in Tamworth. I couldn’t believe Barnaby would play that hard on an away game. But turns out he’s found somewhere in Canberra that does an RSL pour”
Local stay-at-home mum, Kyeleigh Jobbins (26) says this recent scandal only makes her want to vote for Barnaby more.
“I mean, there’s nobody else on the actual ballot. But still, even if there was, I wanna vote for the guy that’s human enough to let his hair down from time to time. Not like the rest of these robots. He’s got my vote”
