Barnaby Joyce pulls out of debate focused on women's issues

Mr Joyce's office said the MP had to back out of the forum focused on women's issues, organised by Zonta, due to scheduling conflicts.

Tamworth Zonta president Stephanie Cameron said the organisation would now "review how we can still put this event together", which was due to be held on Wednesday, May 8.

"We're very disappointed, we believe women matter," she said.

"We had over 100 women coming from across the region to ask questions of the candidates."

The seven other candidates have confirmed they'll be attending another forum at the Coledale Community Centre tomorrow from 12.30pm.

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Independent Adam Blakester called on Mr Joyce to commit to more debates.

"Every town in this electorate has its own unique set of issues and if they have gone to the trouble of setting up a forum, then I'd suggest they have concerns they want answers to," he said.

At the 2017 by-election, Mr Joyce refused to do any public debates, citing that too many of the 16 candidates were "out-of-towners". However, this year, Mr Joyce indicated he would do a handful of forums.

"However, I'm not going to do 10, I'm going to do a couple and then get back to campaigning," he previously told the Leader.

His office said he was still committed to the Tamworth Business Chamber's forum on May 6.

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