Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce reveals expedited religious freedom bill was cost of net zero by 2050 commitment

In a wide-ranging speech to the Tamworth Business Chamber's State of the Nation event on Friday, the Member for New England told the city's business community Tamworth would lose the chance to build Dungowan Dam "forever" if Labor won the 2022 election.

He speculated the federal election would be held in either March or May next year.

And Mr Joyce said if China took Taiwan the world would have a choice of a "hot" war over the island at a cost of tens of thousands of lives, or accept a Beijing-dominated Pacific.

"Taiwan is going to test us all in a way we've never seen before," he said.

"This is not hyperbole. They say they're going to take Taiwan. They say they are and everyone believes they are ... if they do, that will be disastrous."

In response to a question as to whether he would back religious freedom legislation likely to hit Parliament next week, Mr Joyce revealed he had made the bill part of the party's terms in return for backing a commitment to get Australia to net zero by 2050.

"It is one of the fundamental rights I have in this nation is to practice my faith without having to feel that I'm somehow going to be charged or prosecuted," he said.

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He said cases like what he said was the threatened prosecution of Tasmanian Bishop Julian Porteous and the Israel Folau saga show the need for legislation.

"Part of the [net zero by] 2050 agreement was that this must come forward. It's come forward now before the end of the year in honour of that agreement," he said.