Barnaby Joyce had to deal with a lot of anger as he campaigned through regional Victoria this week.
First-up were coalition supporters still fuming about the dumping of Liberal leader Tony Abbott last year for Malcolm Turnbull.
The Nationals leader's message was blunt: you need to get over it and move on.
"Otherwise you live your whole life looking back over your shoulder and you are going to get angry and bitter," Mr Joyce told them.
Angry and bitter is what dairy farmers are feeling in the central Victorian seat of Murray.
Like Abbott supporters they're fuming over the way dairy giants Murray-Goulburn and Fonterra have slashed farmgate milk prices.
Instead of campaigning for the Nationals, Mr Joyce had to put on his agriculture minister's hat to put out a spotfire that threatens to become an inferno.
He heard first-hand tales of despair when he met farmers during a visit to Shepparton.
And he promised to investigate financial assistance, including low-interest concessional loans and more funding for rural counselling.
Mr Joyce was in Murray to campaign alongside Nationals candidate Damien Drum, a former Fremantle Dockers coach and Victorian state MP.
The retirement of Liberal MP Sharman Stone has allowed the Nationals to stand a candidate in the seat for the first time in two decades.
Ditto the next-door electorate of Indi where the junior coalition partner is running interference to Liberal Sophie Mirabella's bid to win back the seat from independent Cathy McGowan.
Mr Joyce described the former Liberal high-flyer's prospects as as "a bit scratchy" amid claims party headquarters is leaking against her and other self-inflicted dramas.
The Nationals had a big win this week with the decision to delay the so-called backpackers tax, pending a ministerial review to be led by Mr Joyce himself.
The decision rid the coalition of an irritant in regional and rural communities concerned about a shortage of seasonal workers.
To finish off Mr Joyce's time away from New England, where he is fighting a challenge from former independent MP Tony Windsor, the Nationals leader pledged $8.8 million plan to tackle yellow crazy ants in far north Queensland.
Meanwhile, he's been profiled for Fairfax Media's Good Weekend magazine on Saturday, snaring the cover and saying he hopes to stay in politics for another decade.
"I wouldn't want to be in politics in my 60s."
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