Barnaby Joyce apologises for ‘bullet’ comment aimed at Labor during anti-wind turbine rally

Barnaby Joyce apologises for ‘bullet’ comment aimed at Labor during anti-wind turbine rally | Barnaby Joyce | The Guardian

Nationals firebrand Barnaby Joyce has apologised for likening ballot papers to “bullets” during a protest against wind turbines.

Speaking to an anti-renewables rally at Lake Illawarra south of Sydney on Sunday, Joyce compared ballot papers to bullets and urged the crowd to “load that magazine” at the voting booth against the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen.

“And the bullet you have is that little piece of paper and it goes in their magazine called the voting box and it’s coming up,” he said in footage of the rally shown on the Seven network.

“Get ready to load that magazine. Goodbye, Chris. Goodbye, Albo.”

Joyce was asked about the comments during his regular appearance on the Seven network breakfast show, Sunrise. At first the former Nationals leader defended his use of the metaphor.

“The ballot paper is the weapon you have – it shouldn’t be a bullet, it should be a ballot paper and the ballot box,” he said on Monday morning, before continuing to criticise wind turbines.

“It is like saying the fertilising capacity and the beauty of dog turd on your lawn in the middle of the morning works as well. [It’s] absolutely disgusting. Nobody wants them.”

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Pressed on the use of the word “bullet” in the wake of the assassination attempt of former US president Donald Trump, Joyce again fell back on the metaphor.

“I said ballot paper and ballot box. That’s what people should be using … People don’t like these wind turds out in the ocean or all over the environment.”

It was only after his sparring guest on the show, Labor MP Bill Shorten told him that the “smartest call here, would be just to apologise for using that metaphor because we’ve had the Donald Trump assassination” that Joyce did.

“Here we go. I apologise for using that metaphor,” he said.

The deputy Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, rebuked her Coalition colleague in a separate interview, saying it was not “language I would have used,” but said she wouldn’t go as far as condemning it.

“Barnaby, as we know, does use colourful language, but I haven’t seen the comments in the entire context,” she said.

“But when it comes to promoting social cohesion, everyone in their language and their words should be lifting the debate to what brings people together, not what pushes people apart, and I think all of us do that.

“So, by focusing and trying to interrogate individual comments at different times, I don’t think that’s particularly helpful.”

In 2018 Joyce provided a victim impact statement to the Armidale local court after a 74-year-old man pleaded guilty to charges of stalking and intimidation against Joyce, which included sending a bullet and threatening note to his electoral office.

In reports from the court proceedings of the time, Joyce’s statement said the bullet and note made him feel nervous and he thought the actions set a bad precedent for others in public life.

It is not the first time an Australian politician has been made to apologise over mixing gun violence with voting in an election.

In 2016, the independent MP Bob Katter released an election campaign ad depicting himself shooting dead Liberal and Labor party members, which was released just days after the Orlando Pulse nightclub massacre.