Joyce says he’s ‘not Jesus Christ’ when pushed on controversial superannuation policy

Barnaby Joyce’s latest interview on ABC’s 7.30 program devolved into chaos when he shouted that he was One Nation’s treasury spokesman – “not Jesus Christ” – when pressed on modelling central to his party’s controversial superannuation policy unveiled on Monday.

Joyce was facing a grilling on Monday’s edition of 7.30 when host Sarah Ferguson challenged the One Nation MP to model the lifetime losses different Australians would incur from the policy, which would allow renters and mortgage holders to dip into a quarter of their superannuation contributions over three years.

Joyce railed against the question, upset that he wasn’t provided the examples before the interview, as Ferguson pushed him for an answer.

“Well, here we go folks, I’ll try and answer something which we’ll need an annuity table and will also need a sort of lineal regression, but I’ll do it for you, straight down the barrel,” Joyce said.

Ferguson responded: “Barnaby Joyce, if I may, obviously this is a policy that your party has come up with, so we would expect you as the Treasury spokesman for that party to be across it, just try it.”

Joyce: “The Treasury spokesman [yes], not Jesus Christ.”

Ferguson continued, listing the forecast superannuation losses for Australians aged 30, 40 and 50, earning a range of incomes. Joyce refused to engage with the question, though did say he was “happy to come back tomorrow” and give informed answers provided Ferguson was “prepared to pay my accountancy fees”.

Less than two months ago, Joyce unleashed at his dog, Stella, while being interviewed by Ferguson, creating a video clip that quickly went viral across the country. One Nation capitalised on the attention by selling custom dog leads following the interview, as part of a wider push of products under the “Sit Down! Barnaby’s Dog Leads” merchandise umbrella.

Joyce announced the superannuation policy alongside party leader Pauline Hanson at a rare Canberra press conference on Monday, dismissing suggestions the proposed reform would raise inflation and discourage real pay rises. One Nation claim that almost two-thirds of workers would be able to access the scheme, and that a median worker would receive an additional $2300 per year under the policy.

It has been panned by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, with Chalmers saying it was setting the scene for the next election to be a “referendum on super”.

Chalmers said One Nation’s policy was a “recipe to make Australian workers tens of thousands of dollars worse off in retirement”, and argued that compound interest losses would negatively outweigh the short-term financial benefit of the new policy.

Hanson promptly called Chalmers “hysterical” in a post on social media and blamed him for the state of the economy. “Perhaps if you hadn’t so thoroughly buggered the economy, Jim, they wouldn’t need to [access superannuation],” she wrote.

Hanson and Joyce said there would be no threshold of financial difficulty for access to the scheme, meaning all renters and mortgage holders – about two-thirds of the population – could benefit.

Joyce said he anticipated that “overwhelmingly” people would only access the scheme if they were in financial hardship, and would need to make applications to their superannuation funds claiming support to make rent and mortgage payments. He acknowledged that “a couple” of people may attempt to flout the system.

Later in Monday’s interview, Joyce revealed he hadn’t known about allegations of illicit drug use and “sexual deviance” levelled at One Nation Victorian party leader Warren Pickering, reported in The Australian.

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