After former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce flirted with joining Pauline Hanson’s One Nation over steak a la sandwich press, the pair appear poised to tie the knot.
Mr Joyce finally announced his resignation from the rural party to sit as an independent on Thursday, following weeks of speculation.
Amid a relationship breakdown with current Nationals leader David Littleproud, the New England MP confirmed he was “strongly considering” making a return to the Senate with One Nation.
But given Senator Hanson’s poor retention rate of elected representatives and Mr Joyce’s record of run-ins with party leaders, questions are being raised about the potential political marriage’s longevity before it has even been consummated.
Fellow former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, who Mr Joyce unsuccessfully challenged in 2020 before eventually bringing down a year later, had some doubts.
“That’ll be an interesting sort of clash of heads between two very much out there people in Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce. Is there enough room in One Nation for those two?” he told reporters.
“That remains to be seen.”
Earlier this week, Senator Hanson wooed Mr Joyce in her parliamentary office over a dinner of steak – seared on a sandwich press – pasta, salad and berry pie.
While the pair appeared to be hitting it off, Senator Hanson has more often than not fallen out with other One Nation representatives.
In the federal parliament, Malcolm Roberts remains the only long-term One Nation senator not to have defected from the party Senator Hanson started and that up until recently bore her name.
Former Liberal adviser David Gazard, now director of DPG Advisory Solutions, said Mr Joyce joining One Nation would be “the greatest train wreck of all time”.
“They are two figures that both want to lead and they won’t back down,” he told ABC News.
“Barnaby is about Barnaby and Pauline is about Pauline and ne’er the twain shall meet – and it has proven the case with other high-profile people who were somewhat colourful who were in One Nation then out of One Nation.
“So that is a train wreck waiting to happen.”
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie told ABC News she hoped Mr Joyce did not join One Nation, saying it was a party of protest and he would be unable to deliver political change there.