Barnaby Joyce denies any association with the CEC
A furious Barnaby Joyce told J-Wire today that he has never had any association with the Citizens’ Electoral Council.
Barnaby Joyce
The Queensland-based senator who is the Shadow Minister for Finance was answering claims made in last Saturday’s “Australian” that he was on the mailing list of the extreme right-wing CEC whose leader was quoted in the paper as saying “we play in the same paddock.”
The CEC which is believed to be associated with the virulently antisemitic U.S.-based Lyndon LaRouche, claimed an association with Joyce through their mailing list.
But an enraged Barnaby Joyce told J-Wire: “I have never read anything from the CEC and do I want to?….a most definite no.”
He said: “What was written about me was absolute rubbish…a complete and utter lie. I know no-one at the Citizens Electoral Council.”
He added: “This is galling and insulting. My two grandfathers fought in both world wars and seven of my granduncles were killed. I could never have anything whasoever to do with a fascist organisation.”
He said that the article’s content was “inflammatory, baseless and insulting”.
Claims that he pursued the line about the long-term precarious nature of American debt and he favoured protectionism were next on his response list to the article in the national newspaper. He said: “The line on the nature of American debt originated from Miles Fergus, a professor at Harvard and was printed in the New York Times and the so-called protectionism had its roots on reports from the Lowy Institute…hardly an extreme right-wing organisation.”
He told J-Wire that “The Australian” had published the article without approaching him or his office on its content.
Colin Rubinstein, the Executive Director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council told J-Wire: “The CEC disseminates its material widely to politicians and media….even AIJAC gets it. Barnaby Joyce has a record of being supportive to both the Australian Jewish community and Israel. It’s unthinkable that he would have anything to do with the antisemitic or extreme right-wing agenda of LaRouche.”
