Who are the Weatherboard Nine?

Those following Barnaby Joyce’s already extraordinary press conference, at which he resigned as Australia’s deputy prime minister and Nationals leader, have been left puzzled by a bizarre phrase he seemed to throw out in the middle of his speech.

When asked what his legacy was, Joyce seemed to say: “I fought for the person in the weatherboard nine.”



Guardian Australia can calm the speculation. Joyce was not referring to a brand new Birmingham Six-esque splinter group. He was saying “weatherboard and iron”.

It’s an odd phrase but one that the former deputy prime minister is especially fond of using.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in October last year, he said it twice. “[I want] to give greater economic and personal advancement to the people in the weatherboard and iron in the regional towns,” he said.

“I didn’t give a toss for where power comes from, but one of the greatest afflictions for people in the weatherboard and iron is they can’t afford power,” he added.

The confusion seems to stem from Joyce’s use of “weatherboard and iron” as a metaphor for poor rural towns, in contrast to the better-built houses of richer cities. It’s a rhetorical device known as synecdoche, where a part of something (the walls of a house) are used as a metaphor for the whole (a town).

As further proof, here’s the Nationals’ official Twitter account quoting him on it in September:

.@Barnaby_Joyce "The people in weatherboard and iron in regional towns are becoming poorer if we don't deal with the power issue." #auspol — The Nationals (@The_Nationals) September 13, 2017

It happened again in December:

Barnaby’s opening remarks, before he got to the weird bit about the “Weatherboard Nine” pic.twitter.com/2kcngAwYX6 — Sarah Martin (@msmarto) December 3, 2017

On Twitter, confused punters had a field day, and the Google searches for “weatherboard nine” skyrocketed.

Twitter atm trying to figure out "weatherboard nine" pic.twitter.com/1dIxM5YyeO — Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 23, 2018

The Weatherboard Nine is the worst Tarantino film yet. — Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) February 23, 2018

We had also googled weatherboard nine.... — Media Watch (@ABCmediawatch) February 23, 2018

The Australian National Dictionary Centre, which collects and studies Australian idioms, said it had “some history”, which should give Barnaby some solace.