Barnaby Joyce’s pending departure from the Nationals is the latest chaotic episode in a two-decade political career that has veered from the sublime to the ridiculous.

For Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, who has had to sack Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and then endure the resignation of Andrew Hastie in the past six weeks, it looks like yet another blow to a shaky Coalition.

Under a new plan, Barnaby Joyce is set to eventually succeed One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.Credit: Monique Westermann

But the mooted defection of Joyce to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation could actually help Ley and improve the Liberal vote in Australia’s major cities. There are potential rewards for Nationals leader David Littleproud, too, but bigger risks to his party.

And, as he weighs joining One Nation, Joyce need only look at the fate of the long line of politicians who have joined and fallen out with the party, from Mark Latham to David Oldfield, to see he faces the biggest risks of all.

Since entering parliament in 2005, Joyce has been a Queensland senator, a NSW MP, a brilliant retail politician, a party leader (twice), the deputy prime minister, an embarrassing distraction and a wrecker........

© The Age