Political Views
Senator Joyce holds conservative views on most moral and social issues. Joyce is pro-life and was a prominent voice in the parliamentary debate against the introduction of the drug RU-486. He has also consistently opposed the use of capital punishment. He took offence at a pamphlet put out by Family First candidate Danny Nalliah, which identified bottle shops, brothels, masonic lodges, mosques, and Hindu and Buddhist temples as "strongholds of Satan", and said that he did not want the preferences of such a party. Joyce criticised the party, calling them "the lunatic Right", and saying that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with". Nonetheless he gained office with preference flows from Family First Party, among many others including Pauline Hanson.
On the economy, Senator Joyce has often earned the ire of his economic rationalist parliamentary colleagues in the Liberal Party of Australia. Joyce has taken up a number of causes often labelled as populist, such as his support for the retention of a single-desk wheat export marketing system for Australian grain growers, drought assistance for primary producers, and amendments to the Trade Practices Act 1974 and media reform regulations that aim to strengthen the ability of small business to compete with multi-national corporations. When questioned on his views, he stated "Maybe I'm an agrarian socialist, I don't know, is there a problem with being an agrarian socialist?".
On 17 March 2009, Joyce launched a privately funded advertisement campaign to keep Rio Tinto local, attacking a bid by the Chinese government-owned resources company Chinalco, a bid which has also been heavily criticised by Legal & General in the United Kingdom.
In August 2011 Joyce spoke at an anti same-sex marriage rally, claiming that same-sex marriage legislation would affect his daughters' rights to marry men. In response Senator Sarah Hanson-Young stated "There is nothing in my Marriage Equality Bill that would prevent Senator Joyce's daughters from getting married to the partner of their choice, rather than taking rights away, the bill extends the rights to all couples."
Read more about this topic: Barnaby Joyce
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