Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has revealed that he’s barely scraping by on his $211,000 annual salary.
In a new interview with Courier Mail, Joyce has shared that it was his own struggle with making ends meet that sparked his call for a rise in welfare payments for job-seekers.
Joyce has revealed that he’s had to implement budgeting tactics in order to financially provide for his estranged wife and their youngest daughter who is currently at boarding school, as well as his current partner who just gave birth to their second son six weeks ago.
The New England MP has revealed that he has developed radical budgeting strategies to get by. Barnaby now “rarely” takes his Misso out to dinner, turns off his heater in the middle of the night and, for some reason, slaughters his own meat.
Nothing says relating to the struggle of the working class quite like the freedom to butcher your own sheep. Someone, please inform Barnaby Joyce that a can of Kidney beans and a lashing of smoked paprika is the ultimate sustenance for living below the poverty line.
“I’m not crying in my beer because there are thousands, thousands doing it much tougher than me,’’ Mr Joyce shared. But like, he can empathise with us guys.
“It’s not that I’m not getting money it’s just that it’s spread so thin,” Joyce continued.
“I’m just saying these circumstances have made me more vastly attuned … it’s just a great exercise in humility going from deputy prime minister to watching every dollar you get.”
Joyce has added that, “the big thrill of the day to be honest is a cup of coffee.” A sentiment I can, genuinely, relate to after spending $5 of the $9 I had to live off each day last month on a single Bonsoy latte.
.@Barnaby_Joyce on Newstart:
I’m on a good salary, and probably by my own circumstances it’s spread pretty thin. And if for me it’s spread thin, on an incredibly good salary, how is it going for other people. It must be pretty tough.
MORE: https://t.co/nteX0boCzW #firstedition pic.twitter.com/cguF1yx8ZY
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 28, 2019
Joyce has shared that his financial circumstances — no longer taking home $20,000 a month— has allowed him to develop an understanding for those struggling to make ends meet on a Newstart payment.
For the record, the Newstart payment provides child-free singles a maximum of $550 a fortnight and has seen no real increase in over 25 years. Labor has raised for a payment review, whilst the Greens have demanded that an extra $75 a week should be added to the payment.
