Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison a ‘liar’ and ‘hypocrite’ in leaked text

Barnaby Joyce described Scott Morrison as “a hypocrite and a liar” in a text message sent on to Brittany Higgins a month after the former staffer’s rape claims exploded into the public arena.

The message to Ms Higgins was sent by Mr Joyce, who was then on the backbench, on March 22, 2021, at 8.30pm (which was 9.30pm in NSW, Victoria and the ACT) through a third party, because the MP did not have her phone number.

Mr Joyce has since returned to the deputy prime ministership and the leaking of the text message will stoke tensions between the two highest political offices in the land, ahead of an election due in a matter of months in which the Coalition is facing a difficult fight.

The third party is known to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, but the person will not be identified at the request of Ms Higgins.

The text message sent by Barnaby Joyce in March, 2021. Credit: Fairfax Media

Ms Higgins shared the message from Mr Joyce with the Herald and The Age after he called on Wednesday for an anonymous minister who made derogatory comments about Mr Morrison in a text message conversation with former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to identify themselves.

The message to Ms Higgins from Mr Joyce stated: “Tell BH [Brittany Higgins] I and Scott, he is Scott to me until I have to recognise his office, don’t get along.

“He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time.

“I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie.”

In a statement, Mr Joyce said he “unreservedly apologised” and that “in the last 24 hours I have become aware that a screenshot of a text message has been circulating among third parties that contains comments I made in March 2021 when I was a backbencher”.

“While the text message was supposed to be private, what I said in that message was wrong; and I have unreservedly apologised to the Prime Minister for my comments,” he said. “It is common knowledge that in the past the Prime Minister and I had not always seen eye to eye.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and Prime Minister Scott Morrison during Question Time at Parliament House on October 27 last year.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“But I have worked extremely closely with the Prime Minister over the last seven months since I returned to the role of Deputy Prime Minister; and the Prime Minister is a person of high integrity and honesty in what is possibly the most difficult job in the nation.”

In a statement, Mr Morrison said that “Barnaby approached me this week to inform me of these text messages. He sincerely apologised and I immediately accepted his apology in good faith”.

“I understand Barnaby was in a different headspace last year, both professionally and personally, and so I know he genuinely no longer feels this way. Relationships change over time. Politicians are human beings too. We all have our frailties and none of us are perfect,” the Prime Minister said.

“Since coming to the role of DPM, it is fair to say that we both positively surprised each other. We were never close before this and never pretended to be. But in these roles we have really found our rhythm, as we have concluded AUKUS, settled our climate change policy and continued to fight the pandemic.”

Mr Joyce has since returned to the deputy prime ministership and the leak will stoke tensions between the two highest political offices in the land.Credit: Simon Schluter

The revelation of the explosive text message to Ms Higgins comes just days after Network 10 political editor Peter van Onselen claimed to have a copy of a text message exchange between Ms Berejiklian and an unnamed federal cabinet member.

In those text messages, the former premier called the Prime Minister a “horrible, horrible man” and the unnamed minister said he was a “complete psycho”.

On Friday, Mr Joyce criticised the motivations of the Liberal cabinet minister alleged to have leaked the text message criticising Mr Morrison.

“You are doing this for the purpose of malice, for the purpose of vindictiveness and for your own personal grudge and therefore, it is to be disregarded,” he told the ABC.

The message to Ms Higgins was sent by Mr Joyce on the same evening the ABC’s Four Corners program went to air with new details, provided by Parliament House security guard Nikola Anderson, about the night Ms Higgins was allegedly raped in Parliament House.

It is not clear if the program prompted Mr Joyce to send the message but in the preceding weeks, Mr Morrison had been heavily criticised for his initial response to Ms Higgins’ claims.

At the time, then-Defence Minster Linda Reynolds was also under fire for calling Ms Higgins a “lying cow”.

Ms Higgins is due to appear at the National Press Club next Wednesday, alongside former Australian of the Year Grace Tame, to discuss the Jenkins’ review of Parliament House’s workplace culture.

Ms Higgins’ rape allegations, which are due to return to court in June, eventually triggered a series of reviews into the culture of Parliament House and a national conversation about the treatment of women in Australia.

Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Bruce Lehrmann, the accused, has pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent at Parliament House in March 2019.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Thursday night that he was not surprised by the text messages that accused Mr Morrison of “actively spreading lies” about Ms Berejiklian.

Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron declared “I don’t think, I know” when asked if he believed Mr Morrison had lied to him about the decision to dump the proposed attack-class submarine in favour of a nuclear-powered boat that will be sourced from Britain or the United States.

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