So all hell broke loose, Barnaby got a cushy gig and then got asked what he did for the dosh. Quite a lot of dosh as it turns out, some $675,000 for a few weeks on the job. Eventually, people started asking questions/ “What the fuck is a drought envoy?”, “What the fuck does a drought envoy do?” and the big question “What did you spend the money on Barnaby?”. Well, we may never know because, after some interest from the media and the Senate, it all went quiet. But not until Barnaby was forced to release a video of himself in his new (smaller) office with a bunch of files and papers.

Barnaby gave us a brief tour of his office including showing us a clock, it was 3 PM and we assume this was to prove he doesn’t sleep off a big boozy lunch in the early afternoons, a picture of some helicopters and a poster of what we assume is one of BJ’s heroes, Joh Bjelke-Petersen or “The Dam Builder” as Barney respectfully refers to him as. Then we get to see the mountains of paper that he says he sent to the then Prime Minister and handerer outer of “special Envoy” rolls, Scott Morrison. The only problem is that the media and most of the public didn’t spot this deft change of the narrative - It was no longer about WHAT DID HE SPEND THE MONEY on but wether or not he produced reports.

So, here’s proof Barnaby assured us and just like that the #MSM went about uncovering other stories to keep us all occupied. So, to date, we still don’t know what the money was spent on. We do know this:

Joyce made four trips to drought-ravaged Queensland, with about a week spent on the ground. The first was a day trip to Longreach, Bedourie and St George, for which a private charter cost more than $15,000*. The second was a chartered day trip to Charleville costing $5,600 for delivery of hay bales by the rapid relief team. The third was an overnight trip to Gympie, also by charter, costing $5,300, while the fourth was an overnight trip to Rockhampton in March 2019. Joyce also made two trips to Tasmania as part of his duties, a two-day trip in March 2019, and a three-day trip in October 2018.

So, he went somewhere and once with some bails of hay and it cost us $675,000. It is reported that as part of that sum there were two staff members employed, supposedly to help him with his normal MP duties, were these ADDITIONAL to his normal MP expenses for staff? Not a word from the MSM.

The question is still valid and we should all be pushing for an answer. It’s all too easy to let these things go and it certainly seems that Barnaby would like us to forget. Numerous requests under FOI were made of the them Morrison PMO and they were refused. We think there is something to hide even if it’s just that Barnaby is bad with money, even so the question should be answered, we’ve made it easy for him by supplying the spreadsheet, your job is to remind everyone to ask the question.

The video of Barnaby in his office can be found here in our ‘special Barnaby collection of clips’ - “Barnaby Joyce explains where he Drought Envoy money went”.

Read our other article on Barnaby’s drought Job here.

Tags: Barnaby Joyce, Drought