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Kevin Hogan says no one ‘gobsmacked’ by Barnaby Joyce’s decision to join One Nation

Kevin Hogan, the deputy leader of the Nationals, compared Barnaby Joyce to Mark Latham after the former said yesterday he would join One Nation.

The only other person I can think of that has left who has been a previous leader of a political party and joined One Nation is Mark Latham. And Barnaby Joyce joins those ranks as having been a previous leader of a party and joining One Nation. But I’ll leave others to make their judgment about that.

Barnaby has said this: he doesn’t want to be on the backbench. He doesn’t like where he sits. So I don’t think there was much that could have been done to stop that.

David [Littleproud] was always saying publicly and privately to Barnaby that the door was open for him to return. And obviously, he’s very disappointed that he left. So, look, I think it was always going to be a tough call. And I think no one is, you know, gobsmacked that he’s made the decision yesterday.

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