By MATT NICHOLLS
BARNABY Joyce says he is comfortable in his own shoes about the amount of work he spends on electorate matters compared to his duties as Agriculture Minister and Deputy Leader of the Nationals.
The Member for New England was in Armidale last week, having flown straight in via Sydney from Abu Dhabi.
It was the same day the Armidale Independent produced the front page graphic of Mr Joyce depicted as Where’s Wally.
“You found me,” were the first three words the MP said as he took a light-hearted approach to the front page.
“Today is a classic example of some of the issues I am facing,” he said.
“Sometimes I have to convey back to the electorate the role I am actually doing.
“The last place I stopped before Armidale was Abu Dhabi and I was there because we want to try and move sheep.
“I am sure the people of New England would not be impressed if I didn’t do that and instead went to a CWA lunch in Glen Innes.”
Mr Joyce said he had plans to use his electorate time more efficiently and that involved using aircraft to venture around New England.
“If I spend all that time in the car it’s time wasted,” he said.
“I am hoping to be able to fly to places such as Inverell and go on the road from there.”
New England is the fourth biggest federal seat in NSW and the 15th biggest in Australia out of the 150 electorates.
There are almost 60,000 square kilometres in New England compared to Tony Abbott’s seat of Warringah (70 square kms), Joe Hockey’s electorate of North Sydney (48 square kms) and Malcolm Turnbull’s Wentworth (30 square kms), which is the smallest in Australia.
Mr Joyce said he knew what he signed up for when he moved back to New England and vowed to work harder to let his constituents know exactly what he was doing.
It’s not just his community that wants to see him more.
Asked how many nights he had spent with his wife Natalie in the month following his Middle East trip, Mr Joyce struggled to remember.
“I reckon there would have been about two nights, maybe three,” he said.
