With the federal election fast approaching on 21 May, Labor's deputy leader Richard Marles and incumbent deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce are the two candidates vying for the job of deputy prime minister.
SBS takes a look at some of the controversies the two have faced in their political careers, as well as the main areas of policy they are campaigning on.
Barnaby Joyce: Coal, jobs, and hats
Barnaby Joyce and Bob Katter auction Katter's hat during a National Marriage Day Rally at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, 16 August 2011, calling on the government not to approve same sex marriage. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE
Mr Joyce leads the Nationals Party, who form the other half of the governing coalition with the Liberals. The Nationals operate under the slogan “for regional Australia”, and Mr Joyce has certainly adopted the party motto, often sporting his traditional Australian Akubra hat.
Born in Tamworth, NSW, Mr Joyce markets himself as representing the typical outback Australian. He was raised as one of six children on a cattle farm, and is the child and grandchild of World War One and World War Two veterans.
After graduating from the University of New England in Armidale, NSW with a Bachelor of Financial Administration, Mr Joyce moved around NSW and Queensland working as a farm worker, rural banker and nightclub bouncer.
He was elected into the Senate in the 2004 federal election where he represented Queensland and the Nationals Party. He crossed the floor nineteen times during the Howard government, for issues including the government sale of Telstra.
Mr Joyce became leader of the Nationals in the Senate in 2008, and transferred to the House of Representatives in 2013 where he replaced Nigel Scullion as deputy leader of the party. In 2016, Mr Joyce became leader of the Nationals and deputy prime minister.
Since Mr Joyce took the chief role, he’s experienced a series of public scandals.
In 2017, he announced that he’d separated from his wife, before The Daily Telegraph reported that he was expecting a child with his former communications staffer Vikki Campion. Then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Mr Joyce should “consider his own position” but could not force him to resign under the Coalition agreement.
In 2018, a Western Australian woman accused Mr Joyce of having sexually harassed her. While he denied the claims, Mr Joyce stepped down as leader of the Nationals and deputy prime minister, leaving Michael McCormack to take his position.
After an eight-month investigation, the harassment claims were dismissed due to "insufficient evidence".
Three years later, Mr Joyce once again became leader of the Nationals after a leadership spill.
His name was tied to another scandal when it was revealed that he called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a “hypocrite and a liar” in a text message to former political staffer Brittany Higgins.
Pressure was once again on for him to resign, and he offered to step down, but Mr Morrison rejected the offer and he remains in the role today.
Ahead of the 2022 federal election, the Nationals have campaigned for creating more jobs for regional Australians. This includes building new coal mines, like the Olive Downs coal mine in Central Queensland which the party boasts will generate more “high-quality coking coal to international buyers” and generate $10 billion in economic activity over the mine’s lifespan.
The party is also pledging its support for Australia’s forestry industry, which it forecasts to become a $100 billion industry by 2030 under a Coalition government.
After resistance against climate change regulation, the party eventually agreed to the 2050 net zero target at the end of 2021.
But this topic made headlines after Nationals senator Matt Canavan called the target “dead” just hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the government’s commitment to it.
As of 13 May, Mr Canavan’s Twitter bio read:
“NOT ZERO ... MORE JOBS, MORE DAMS, MORE MANUFACTURING”.
In regards to the status of the Biloela family, a Sri Lankan family who fled persecution to Australia and are now held in detention facilities, Mr Joyce has argued they should be released and allowed to return to their home in Queensland.
Priya and Nades Murugappan, and their two Australian-born children Kopika and Tharnicaa, have sought refuge in Australia since 2012, but were removed from their home in the town of Biloela by Border Force officers in 2018.
Richard Marles: Medicare, unions, and China
Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles is a Geelong-born former industrial lawyer and former Minister for Trade under the second Rudd government.
Before his political career, he was the General Secretary of the National Union of Students and an assistant secretary for the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
Australian Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles speaks during a press conference while visiting Munster Mechanical on Day 13 of the 2022 federal election campaign, in Slacks Creek, Saturday, 23 April, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE
When Opposition leader Anthony Albanese took a one-week break from the campaign trail in April after contracting COVID-19, Mr Marles was on the receiving end of attacks from the Coalition, namely from Defence Minister Peter Dutton and the prime minister.
After Mr Albanese left it to his frontbenchers to step up while he was ill, the Coalition attacked Mr Marles over a speech he made in China in September, 2019 and a short book he published last year, which Mr Dutton and Mr Morrison claimed represented a soft stance towards China.
Mr Marles wrote in the book that “Australia has no right to expect a set of exclusive relationships with Pacific nations" and "they are perfectly free to engage on whatever terms they choose with China or, for that matter, any other country”.
Following pressure over Solomon Islands signing a security pact with China, labelled by Labor senator Penny Wong as the worst foreign policy development since World War Two, Mr Dutton and Mr Morrison shifted the heat towards Mr Marles for the historic comments.
"I find it quite startling that Richard Marles, as the deputy leader of the Labor Party, could have made these statements. These weren't statements made back in 1999 or 2010, these were statements essentially a matter of months ago," Mr Dutton said.
"And it's no wonder that when Richard Marles and Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong and others were sitting around the cabinet table with Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, they stripped money out of defence and they lost control of our borders.
"And they don't have the strength, frankly, to deal with the issues that our country will face into the future.
Mr Dutton also attacked Mr Marles over his China speech, which he shared with the government before making.
Mr Marles defended the speech, saying it was critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), including voicing concerns over human rights abuses against the country’s Uyghur minority.
On Friday, Mr Morrison again criticised Mr Marles, after The Australian newspaper reported the deputy Opposition leader had held 10 meetings with the Chinese embassy or officials in the past five years.
The prime minister said it was a “very strangely high number of meetings between an opposition member of Parliament and Chinese government officials”.
“I mean, something doesn't sound right to me,” he said.
Mr Marles said the government was being “desperate and silly” accusing it of trying to engage in a “desperate” distraction.
He said it was “no secret” he had maintained a relationship with the "diplomatic core" in Canberra.
“Let's be clear, I've been completely transparent about all my activities indeed the government has known about them.”
Ahead of the upcoming election, Mr Marles has supported Labor’s strong stance on increasing funding to Australia’s health sector.
On his campaign website, he writes that all Australians should be able to access medical treatment “regardless of their bank balance”.
Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese acknowledges Deputy Leader of the Labor Party Richard Marles ahead of delivering a speech at the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on Day 3 of the 2022 federal election campaign, in Melbourne, Wednesday, 13 April, 2022. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) Source: AAP / LUKAS COCH/AAPIMAGE
"Our local GPs are already under a huge strain to support our communities – the last thing we need is more cuts to Medicare.
"Labor built Medicare and we will always protect it."
The federal election will be held on 21 May.
Do you have an election question you’d like answered? Or a story you’d like us to cover? Email politics@sbs.com.au
