Abbott slaps down Joyce's ideas

Tony Abbott has been forced to clear up comments by Barnaby Joyce, reassuring voters
the coalition isn't planning to cut foreign aid or slash the public service.
As he hit the hustings in Canberra for the first shopping centre walkabout of the
phoney election campaign, Mr Abbott was dogged by questions about his finance
spokesman.
Mr Abbott slapped down the ideas put forward by Senator Joyce, stressing his
commitment to current aid spending and "support" for the public service.
"I want to be absolutely clear about this: the coalition supports existing plans for
spending on foreign aid. The coalition supports the public service," he told
reporters.
The Liberal leader twice walked away when asked on camera whether he supported
Senator Joyce but when the same question was later put to his office, a spokeswoman
said: "Of course."
During an appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Senator Joyce argued
that sending money overseas made little sense when Australia faced staggering debt
under the Rudd government.
Under pressure to identify how the coalition would fund its $3.2 billion climate
change policy, Senator Joyce confirmed the coalition would consider cuts to the
public service.
He also struggled with his trillions, billions and millions - mixing them up on a
few occasions during his press club address.
It's not the first time Senator Joyce has spoken out of turn since joining the
shadow ministry.
This week the Nationals senator had to back away from earlier comments that the
coalition should keep an open mind about supporting the government's plan to means
test the private health insurance rebate, which the opposition is against.
This time round the musings from Senator Joyce risked drowning out Mr Abbott's
warnings about the pitfalls of the Rudd government's emissions trading scheme and
the failure of its GroceryWatch scheme on his visit to the Ainslie IGA supermarket
in suburban Canberra.
Mr Abbott was accosted by Canberra woman Kate Jarvis, the mother of a public
servant, who labelled the Nationals senator a menace.
The Rudd government has set its sights on Senator Joyce as the weakest link in the
shadow cabinet.
The affable Queenslander faces a tough job up against one of Labor's best
performers, Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner.
As both sides of politics continued to trade blows over climate change policy in
question time, Mr Tanner turned his attention to his counterpart on Thursday.
"This isn't a shadow finance minister, it's a freak show," he said.
"It's the bearded lady of Australian politics, he's taken charge of economic policy."
God help Australia, Mr Tanner warned, if Senator Joyce ever got control of
government coffers.
Treasurer Wayne Swan dubbed him Barnaby Rubble - a throwback to the stone age
Flintstones cartoon - doing his sums with an abacus.
Senator Joyce brushed off the government criticism, insisting his argument was that
the nation needed to be wary of its debt levels.
"It's vitally important the Australian people know that if we continue on this
trajectory of debt there will be severe consequences in the future," he told AAP.
"We need to clearly tell the Australian people that to maintain the job security of
the public service we must repay the debt. To maintain an aid budget ... to fund it,
we must repay the debt."