Joyce under fire over claims of being Farm2Pub sceptic.
In another test of Tony Abbott’s decision to place Senator Barnaby Joyce in the Shadow Finance Minister position Mr Abbott has come out and defended Sen. Joyce amongst claims the Senator is a Farm2Pub sceptic.
This week in Parliament Question Time saw a series of highly emotive exchanges as the ALP targeted Sen. Joyce over their belief that he doesn’t consider the Farm2Pub to be a recent man made event but rather an almost natural phenomena that has occurred in similar guises over the course of history.
A number of alleged quotes from Sen. Joyce have appeared in the press of late, of things said by him at a combined Liberal / National party fund raiser in the Western District at which he was the after dinner Speaker. (without confirming the veracity of anything he was alleged to have said Sen. Joyce has expressed his displeasure at the leak of the content of his speech; he said he was under the impression that the Chatsworth House provisions applied).
Sen. Joyce is alleged to have said … ” just look at the what Farm2Pub involves. There are people travelling long distances, there is the physical punishment, the general ‘ bread & circuses ‘ aspect, the skulduggery trying to beat the handicapper, the absence of a material prize with simply the honour of winning the aim, the alcohol at the conclusion.
Really it’s very much akin to various games & events that took place in Ancient Greek & Roman times. Just about all it’s missing is a few dice games, people running in Toga & sandals, some prostitutes from Mesopotamia, a chariot race and at conclusion some people being thrown in with Lions.”
(Sen. Joyce strenuously denied he suggested Phil Joyce & Butch Turville as candidates for any Lion related activities.)
Further the Senator is said to have likened the challenge of Sandy Lane to the run of the soldier Pheidippides from a battlefield at the site of the town of Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C. bringing news of a Greek victory over the Persians.
When asked for any comment last night at a doorstop interview the Senator was reluctant to discuss the matter and further fuel the debate, he did however say that he would remind the Farm2Pub organisers that in the original Olympic game the competitors were nude. –
With thanks to the Protagonist, and his trusty ghost writer in Nicholas Joyce