Alan Jones joyous at Barnaby Joyce's return
Controversial commentator Alan Jones has hailed Barnaby Joyce's return to politics as a move that will "paradoxically save" Prime Minister Scott Morrison after a "rather tumultuous political day in Canberra”.
Barnaby Joyce has resumed his former position as Deputy Prime Minister after three years on the backbench when he resigned due to expecting a child with a former staff member.
Joyce defeated Michael McCormack in a party room spill and has returned as Nationals leader as well as the Deputy PM.
Jones slammed Mr McCormack, saying “anyone who thinks that McCormack was a leader is in serious need of medication”.
“Rural Australia has had a gutful of no leadership and the National Party were staring into political oblivion,” Mr Jones said.
Sky News' Peta Credlin was thrilled about Joyce's return and said that he's a "great retail politcian".
“He’s gregarious, he actually likes people. He’s a lot smarter than his detractors give him credit for and he works hard,” she said on her program Credlin.
However, she said that Joyce could be "ill disciplined" and "prone to shooting his mouth off before he thinks, or worse, doesn't do his homework to actually get the detail right".
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has welcomed Joyce to the role, saying that he looks forward “working closely together to ensure Australia continues its recovery from Covid-19 and the recession it caused”.
Joyce has also made an effort to "acknowledge my faults".
"Well, I acknowledge my faults," he said.
"And I resigned as I should and I did.
"I've spent three years on the backbench and you know, I hope I come back a better person.
"I don't walk away from the fact that you have to have time to consider, not only the effect on yourself, but more importantly, the effect on others.
"I've done that. I don't want to dwell on the personal, except to say hopefully one learns from their mistakes and makes a better person of themselves."