Nationals renegade Barnaby Joyce is mulling whether to defect to One Nation after a casual steak dinner date with the right-wing party's leader.
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The meal in Pauline Hanson's parliamentary office on Monday night came shortly after she pulled a widely-condemned burqa stunt in the Senate, fulfilling an earlier promise she made to cook for Mr Joyce if he considered defecting to her party.
The New England MP and former deputy prime minister first announced his intention to leave the Nationals last month, citing a rift with the party leadership and frustrations over the party's net-zero policy, which it has since dumped.
Mr Joyce said he would not contest his seat in the next election, but intended to remain in parliament.
Being moved to the backbench after the May election was a factor in his decision.
"I just don't want much of a circus. I'll get to the end of the week and we'll make a decision there," Mr Joyce told radio station 2GB on Tuesday.
"I don't like being sort of stuck down the back in a corner. I'm a front row forward ... and that's where I like to play."
While wagyu is considered premium steak, Senator Hanson surprised culinary connoisseurs by searing it on a sandwich press and serving it with a salad, potato bake and berry pie.
But Mr Joyce said the meal was "actually brilliant".
It came after Senator Hanson attracted controversy for donning a burqa, similar to her stunt in 2017, after the chamber refused to allow her to debate a bill on banning the face-covering.
"[We wouldn't be] having this conversation if those senators in the chamber allowed Pauline Hanson to put forward her private members bill," Mr Joyce said.
The dinner followed One Nation's recent wave of polling success, with voters increasingly turning to the populist party over the coalition.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan said One Nation has "no records" of winning elections when asked about Mr Joyce's high-stakes meeting.
"I mean, come on, Barnaby, do you really want to go and join the circus, or do you want to stay in a real team that's really focused on delivering change?" he told Sky News.
The anti-net zero campaigner called Mr Joyce's prospective jump to One Nation a "longer saga than Days of Our Lives" and that "people are all sick and tired of it".
Australian Associated Press
