Barnaby Joyce on speaking against his party, refugees, immigration and water

The New England has been in the headlines as a voice of opposition against his party, calling for the government to raise Newstart and the Biloela refugees to stay.

The Leader asked Mr Joyce if his colleagues had told him to pipe down.

"That would happen all the time," he said.

"God gives you a brain, you should use it. If all you're going to do is precisely what you're instructed to do, then you don't need politicians, bureaucracy can do the job for you.

"If you go through my political career, when I'm not in cabinet I do my job. Where I think there needs to be proper consideration of an alternate view, I speak up.

"This is not something new. If anything, this is going back to my regular form. I could do it all the time, but I don't, I try to pick my issues."

Mr Joyce was one of the few Coalition politicians to stand against the Tamil family's deportation to Sri Lanki, after the parent's asylum application was rejected.

Had it been just the parents, who have been living in the country for three years, Mr Joyce would not be as concerned.

"But there are two kids there," he said.

"I get really annoyed when people say we're sending [the kids] back to Sri Lanka, because they're not from Sri Lanka - they're Australians.

"We're sending away Australians that have never lived in another country. Why don't you send them to Rwanda? That's another country they're not from.

"You can't just whip two kids off the street and send them to a place they never been, because of something their parents weren't able to get."

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Mr Joyce said the government should be pushing immigrants to regional Australia, to help stop the population decline of rural towns.

The Leader recently revealed that New England's cities - Tamworth and Armidale - had steady growth. However, most towns in the electorate were stagnant or going backwards.

"I think there should be a program to encourage them to live in regional areas, as opposed to Sydney.

"Immigrants bring a form of economic stimulation. That's one of the reasons Australia's had 28 years of uninterrupted growth.

"This family in Biloela were not being carried, they've been contributing - and they're actually also involved in local community groups.

"Any person coming into town is going to bring economic growth. They're going to want a new fridge, new house and so on."

The New England MP said water was the "absolute centre of my frustration", and hit out at the state government's plan for another multi-million study of Dungowan Dam.

"Last I heard, they want to spend another $29 million on more studies. That's just procrastination, we've already paid for a study.

"If you want to have a study, go ask the council if they need more water - there's your study, there's your business case.

"I genuinely believe they need to do an audit of the legislation and bureaucracy and regulations. We need to find out what is holding this up and get rid of it."