Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

barnaby joyce

Australia deputy PM under pressure to resign over affair with woman who was given government job

Barnaby Joyce won re-election to parliament recently on a platform of community and conservative values.

QUESTION TIME Barnaby Joyce AAP / PA Images AAP / PA Images / PA Images

PRESSURE IS MOUNTING on Australia’s deputy prime minister amid fresh allegations that his affair with a younger former staffer, who is pregnant with their child, breached ministerial rules.

Barnaby Joyce has been under intense scrutiny since the relationship was splashed across the front page of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph last week, with his wife of 24 years making clear she and their four daughters were devastated.

He made a public apology to them yesterday and defended the two jobs, one for a minister, that his 33-year-old lover Vikki Campion was given after she stopped working for him last year.

Joyce – internationally renowned for threatening to euthanise Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s dogs over a quarantine violation – denied he breached the ministerial code of conduct.

It stipulates that “partners” of ministers cannot be given jobs in ministerial offices without the express approval of the prime minister.

Australia Sexual Misconduct Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull Joseph Nair / PA Images Joseph Nair / PA Images / PA Images

“I am very aware of the ministerial code of conduct,” Joyce, head of the National Party which is in a coalition with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberals, told reporters in Canberra.

It is without a shadow of a doubt that Vikki Campion is my partner now. But when she worked in my office, she was not my partner. When she worked in (Resources Minister) Matt Canavan’s office, she was not my partner.

Joyce reportedly updated his formal register of interests last month to say he was separated from his wife, but has not added Campion, who is expecting their baby in April, as his partner.

Resignation demands

The growing scandal has seen the Labor opposition question whether it is tenable for Joyce to continue in his position, while the Greens have demanded he resign. Breaching the code of conduct could be grounds for him to be removed from office.

New claims in the Telegraph of inappropriate behaviour by Joyce at a pub after an official function in 2011 were slammed by the 50-year-old as “serious defamation”.

Turnbull and the Liberals have sought to distance themselves from the saga, which comes just months after the coalition survived a crisis over lawmakers’ citizenship that threatened their slim parliamentary majority.

“The deputy PM… said that he had not discussed Ms Campion’s employment with me or my office. He confirmed that the Nationals were responsible for decisions relating to staffing,” Turnbull told parliament on Monday.

Joyce was also embroiled in the nationality saga that saw a host of parliamentarians resign over a once-obscure rule barring dual citizens from federal office, and he had to stand for re-election in his rural constituency.

He campaigned on a platform of being a pillar of the community who upheld conservative values, including marriage, and comfortably won the crucial by-election.

© – AFP, 2018

Read: South Africa’s ruling party has decided to oust scandal-tainted President Zuma – reports

Read: Heir donates estate of Hitler’s filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, to cultural museum

Your Voice
Readers Comments
14
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

    Leave a commentcancel