Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has warned Australia’s national security will be at risk if more independent candidates win seats in the federal parliament.
“We’ll have countries that wish us harm laughing all the way to the battleships,” he told reporters in Shepparton while campaigning in the central Victorian electorate of Nicholls where the Nationals are being challenged by local councillor and independent Rob Priestly.
Independent candidates should declare which side of politics they would support before the election, the deputy prime minister said.
“You’ve got to be straight with us about which side you actually back. You can either be playing for St Kilda or you can be playing for Collingwood, you can’t be playing for both in the same game,” he said.
Nicholls is held by retiring Nationals MP Damian Drum on a 20 per cent margin.
Regional Education Minister Bridget McKenzie said politics was a “tough game” and she did not believe independents were up for the challenge.
“Rural independents, no matter where they’re from, can talk a big game. But it is us out in the regions more broadly (who) are going to have to deal with their self-set policies,” she said.
“This is a tough game. It requires tough decisions and being part of a strong team that delivers, which is exactly what you’ve got with the Liberal-Nationals.”
Senator McKenzie also spruiked a $19.5 million promise for new clinical health school facilities in the Greater Shepparton region if the Liberal-National coalition is re-elected in May.
But she ruled out sourcing healthcare workers from overseas to address worker shortages, as Labor has committed to doing.
“The greatest risk to healthcare provision for rural and regional Australians … is the election of a Labor government that doesn’t understand what we need out here and how we grow our own (healthcare workers),” she told reporters in Shepparton on Tuesday.
The deputy prime minister is expected to visit Mildura, in the federal seat of Mallee held by Nationals MP Anne Webster on a 15 per cent margin.
