Barnaby Joyce says he’s ‘not Jesus Christ’ after being pressed on super policy

Barnaby Joyce said he is not Jesus Christ after he failed to answer a question on One Nation’s superannuation policy during a live television interview.

The One Nation treasury spokesperson became visibly frustrated on ABC’s 7.30 program when he was asked how much Australians would lose in retirement income under the party’s plan to allow early access to super.

He interrupted the host, Sarah Ferguson, when she tried to present him with an example with figures from bank economists.

“As you know, you delivered them to me before the interview, don’t we? Well, here we go, folks,” Joyce said.

“I’ll try and answer something which could need an annuity table, and we’ll also need sort of linear regression. If I may, I’ll do it for you straight down the line.”

Ferguson said she would expect him to know the details of the policy as the party’s treasury spokesperson, to which he replied: “I’m the treasury spokesperson, not Jesus Christ”.

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“I mean, you have to actually give me the details of these things if you’re going to put them forward to me.”

After he was provided the details of the question, he said it was complex and would come back with an answer on Tuesday.

Joyce was asked whether he had come up with the answer during a doorstop at Parliament House on Tuesday and said there were “realms of numbers” he was working in, including fees and charges and stock markets.

“When someone pops these questions to you in the middle of an interview at 7.30 at night with no warning, then I am either AI or I am a human being. And if I’m a human being, I need a little bit more time,” he said.

Labor’s Industry Minister Tim Ayres criticised Joyce for failing to explain his policy.

“He became so frustrated that he blasphemed on the 7.30 report rather than engage seriously with a serious question about the inflationary impact of these policies and the impact that they would have on ordinary Australians’ retirement incomes,” he told reporters.

Joyce and Pauline Hanson faced reporters in a rare press conference at Parliament House on Monday to explain their widely criticised super policy – to allow renters and mortgage holders to divert part of their super as a 3 per cent “pay boost” for up to three years.

Under their plan, there would be no restriction on who could access their super.

The pair rebuked concerns potentially allowing millions of Australians access to thousands of dollars would worsen inflation and therefore push up interest rates while leaving them poorer in the long term through forgone retirement income.

“I’m not going to deny Australians the right to access their money if they feel that they need it,” Hanson said.

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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor on Monday said there were several unanswered questions as he brushed off One Nation’s policy but his shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg said One Nation’s plan is a start.

“This is an important debate to have. It’s important that we keep on looking at the best way to maximise homeownership,” Bragg said.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday accused the Liberals of trying to “photocopy” One Nation’s plan.

“I think that says it all about the very dangerous and risky, anti-worker, anti-super ideology, shared by One Nation, the Liberals, and the Nationals,” he told reporters.

The Australian Financial Review reported One Nation has gazumped the Coalition for the second time with its super policy, just weeks after announcing a tobacco excise policy similar to the one the Coalition had been working on.

Ayres questioned whether there was a mole in the Coalition feeding information to One Nation.

“It’s very clear where the One Nation starts, and the Coalition follows,” he said.

“There’s only two possible explanations. One is they are the same. A vote for the Liberals is a vote for One Nation is a vote for the National Party. Or secondly, that Pauline Hanson has a mole in the Coalition’s shadow cabinet.

“Why has Pauline Hanson always got the jump on Angus Taylor?”