“You
must keep that fire burning for those people who can’t
stand
up for themselves and I call them people – they’re not foetuses”.
Barnaby
Joyce
Farid Farid and Robyn Wuth
Jun 03, 2026, updated Jun 03, 2026
Source: AAP
Riding high on One Nation’s popularity in the polls,
backbench MP Barnaby Joyce has fronted an anti-abortion rally with a fiery
warning to other politicians.
Joyce said his pro-life stance was one of conviction
rather than of political opportunism, drawing massive cheers from a crowd of
about 2000 people outside the NSW parliament on a chilly Sydney evening.
“Politically, does this make you popular? No, you’d
probably lose half your votes every time you do it. But you know why you do it
because that’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Joyce, who left the Nationals in late 2025 as the
far-right One Nation’s polling rise gathered pace, argued that galvanising
support around the pro-life cause could change the political landscape.
One Nation has leapfrogged Labor to become the
political party with the highest primary vote, according to a Redbridge poll
this week.
“I don’t know much about a lot, but I know a lot about
politics and the one thing politicians fear is losing their job. They’re very
mindful of that,” Joyce said.
“You must keep that fire burning for those people who
can’t stand up for themselves and I call them people – they’re not foetuses.”
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce vowed to ‘keep the fire
burning’ for the
anti-abortion cause. Photo: AAP
Tuesday’s demonstration was organised by anti-abortion
campaigner Joanna Howe in support of a bill in NSW parliament proposed by
Libertarian MP John Ruddick to criminalise gender selective abortions.
