Nationals' deputy Chester says Joyce departure 'sad for him, sad for party'

Nationals' deputy Darren Chester on Barnaby Joyce and the rise of One Nation Darren Chester has spent 18 years in parliament as the National Party's member for Gippsland in Victoria. In that time, he has served as a minister under both the Turnbull and Morrison Coalition governments, twice watched bushfires sweep through his electorate, collapsed in parliament due to fatigue and at one point even took a break from his own party. Today he's the National's deputy leader, facing a looming threat from Pauline Hanson's One Nation, although it doesn't appear to be something the MP is too concerned about. "In terms of my own future and in terms of One Nation, I don't even worry about what they're doing in Gippsland," he told Annabel Crabb on ABC iview's Kitchen Cabinet. 'Sad for our party' But it's difficult to avoid the elephant in the room. Barnaby Joyce, a former leader of the Nationals, has left the party to join One Nation. Mr Chester doesn't believe the New England MP's actions have made it harder for voters to distinguish the Nationals from One Nation and said there's no suggestion other National Party members would follow Mr Joyce. "That's a decision he made for reasons that he has never fully explained, really,"he said. Mr Chester called the move "self-indulgent" and said it was sad that Mr Joyce had undermined his own legacy. "The idea that a leader — someone who had been the deputy prime minister — would leave the party and join another party just because they didn't get the job they wanted in opposition is quite extraordinary." The job in question was a position in the shadow ministry, according to Mr Chester. At the time of his decision to leave the Nationals, Mr Joyce said his relationship with the leadership of the party "had broken down" and he had been relegated to the "ejection" seat on the backbench. In a recent episode of Australian Story, speaking on Mr Joyce's move from the Nationals, his wife Vikki Campion asked: "How long do you have to be loyal to a party that mistreats you?" Mr Chester said Mr Joyce's defection is not only "sad for our party" but also "sad for him". "Our party had made him the Member of Parliament that he was; given him those opportunities," he said. 'Loose coalition of independents' According to Mr Chester, the National Party is like a "a loose coalition of independents" who are "very independently minded" and "hard to lead". "People in the [party] room expect to be treated as equals and get to have their say on behalf of their community," he said. "There are issues which reflect the differences in the people we represent, and we are specialists in rural and regional Australia. "They're the only seats we contest so there will be issues that impact rural and regional Australia disproportionately, and quite rightly, the Nats will have a stronger view than any other party with [those] issues." Mr Chester said communicating the concerns of regional Australia — particularly those in industry — was becoming increasingly difficult. "A lot of people in metropolitan areas now don't have a point of reference to a regional community,"he said. "They don't have a cousin who lives on a farm, they don't visit a farm, so they don't understand how farms work. "The lack of understanding is a real problem for us." Getting climate policy wrong There has been a shift in climate policy within the Coalition since the early days of Net Zero, when the Morrison Coalition government pledged net zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Mr Chester initially supported Net Zero but has since changed his position, aligning himself with National Party leader Matt Canavan, who has long been one of its loudest critics. He said his initial support for Net Zero was due to his belief at the time that Australia's trading position would otherwise be jeopardised. "A lot has changed since that time and I have no hesitation in saying that Matt was right and I got it wrong," he said. Mr Chester says he and Senator Canavan are working "really well" together. Mr Chester is now arguing for nuclear power in Australia, advocating for a power station to be located in the place of the coal-fired power stations currently in Gippsland's Latrobe Valley. He said it would come with enormous benefits, including the ability to link into existing transmission corridors while avoiding farmland. Latrobe Valley residents are divided at the prospect of a nuclear power station in the region. Some cite safety and waste disposal as an issue, but others argue it would provide a boost to the local economy. Despite his backflip on Net Zero, Mr Chester said he is not anti-renewables and believes it's about finding the "right energy solution for our country". "We're going to have nuclear-powered submarines. We've had a reactor at Lucas Heights for 60-odd years. And we've got a moratorium in place based on some … Simpsons' episode about three-eyed fish? "If your point of reference is a Simpsons' episode, you've kind of lost your credibility in [the] broader energy debate," he said, referring to the time Labor MPs shared a meme mocking the Coalition's nuclear plan. 'Waking up in the middle of the night' Mr Chester's electorate has seen challenging times over his term in parliament, perhaps one of the toughest being the bushfires of Black Summer. By February 2020, the bushfires had been burning for several months, incinerating millions of hectares along the east coast, including in Gippsland. Mr Chester said this was partly behind his widely reported collapse in parliament at the time. "It was during the Black Summer bushfires. You had 30-odd days in a row doing the recovery work. I was fatigued — I know that now," he said. At the same time, there were rumblings taking place in the party's backrooms. "Barnaby [Joyce] was hunting [then National Party leader and deputy prime minister Michael] McCormack relentlessly. I was waking up in the middle of the night, your mind was just staying active." Mr Chester said he was "frustrated" by Mr Joyce's actions. "There was a natural disaster of quite epic proportions, [and] we were again being distracted by a leadership conversation, which we should not have been having." "I wasn't aware I wasn't getting enough rest until my body just basically shut down for a few seconds and gave me a wake-up call." Stream the new season of Kitchen Cabinet free on ABC iview.