'We rarely go out for dinner': Barnaby Joyce struggling on $211,000 salary
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says his own struggles to make ends meet on a $200,000-plus parliamentary salary inspired him to break ranks and call for a rise in welfare payments for job-seekers.
Mr Joyce, a father of six, is supporting his estranged wife and their youngest daughter, who's in boarding school, as well as his current partner Vikki Campion and their two young sons.
The New England MP, who earns about $211,000 a year, says he's turning the heater off at night, killing his own meat, not going out for dinner and buying cheap groceries.
“It’s not that I’m not getting money it’s just that it’s spread so thin," he told The Courier-Mail on Monday.
“I’m just saying these circumstances have made me more vastly attuned ... it’s just a great exercise in humility going from deputy prime minister to watching every dollar you get."
Mr Joyce says his new circumstances means his daily cup of coffee is cause for excitement.
“So the big thrill of the day to be honest is a cup of coffee. We (he and Vikki) rarely if ever go out for dinner."
Joyce calls for increase in Newstart allowance
Mr Joyce is now calling for the Newstart payment for job-seekers, which hasn't risen beyond inflation since the mid-1990s, to be increased, in the face of federal government opposition.
The payment is $555.70 a fortnight for a single person without children, or $40 a day.
“I am working out on a very, very good salary how you make two ends when you’re supporting basically two families," he told Seven's Sunrise program.
“God knows how someone on $280 a week ever gets by; I don’t know how they do it. It would be near impossible."
“If there’s one thing that is incumbent on me now is to say, ‘No, that is not fair and that is not appropriate and we should do something about it’," Mr Joyce said.
Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon said the sentiment is proof people are finding it hard to get by on Newstart under the coalition government.
“Whatever the cause of Barnaby's epiphany, it is really good he has now acknowledged that after six years under this government, people are doing it very, very tough," he said.
Pauline Hanson says Joyce’s explanation is stupid
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson had harsher words for the MP, saying many people would want to be earning his wage.
“What a ridiculous stupid way to explain himself," she told Nine's Today program.
“$211,000, I don’t complain about it, I think we are on a good wage. Most of mine goes to helping my kids actually, but that’s what parents do.”
While Mr Joyce agrees with the government that the best form of welfare is a job, he also adds work isn't always easy to find.
“Let’s say we’re going to move for work. The first thing you have to do is pay bond on a new place but you haven’t got that. So you live with somebody else, there’s a word for that — couch surfing.
“You could be putting yourself in a much worse position," he said.
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