Questions raised over Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce’s road trip with partner Vikki Campion

BARNABY Joyce took a 3000-kilometre road trip — some if not all with his pregnant girlfriend — without doing any official work. So, who paid the bill?

EXCLUSIVE

AFTER becoming minister for infrastructure and transport, Barnaby Joyce took a 3000-kilometre road trip — some if not all with his pregnant girlfriend — without doing any official work.

The Deputy Prime Minister has repeatedly refused to deny the 11-day journey was in a taxpayer-funded vehicle or that his fuel bill was paid for from the public purse.

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Mr Joyce has at least two taxpayer-funded vehicles — a Toyota Landcruiser and a smaller Ford Escape.

The Ford has been seen on the short shuttle between Parliament House and his girlfriend Vikki Campion’s apartment in Canberra.

Barnaby Joyce took partner Vikki Campion on a road trip across two states. Picture: Gary Ramage

Joyce’s interstate road trip began at Coffs Harbour following a meeting with local Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker on December 22 — two days after he was sworn into his new portfolios in Canberra.

From Coffs Harbour he travelled via Childers — where he spoke to a truckie named Trevor about texting — on an 1800km partially inland route to Townsville on December 26, by which time he was with 32-year-old Ms Campion, his former media adviser. His office has declined to say when the two met up.

Barnaby Joyce faces Maritime Union Australia protesters at a media conference in Gladstone. Picture: Adam Yip/ The Australian

Mr Joyce then ventured a further five hours north to Cairns, where he was still with Ms Campion, before driving 1200km down the Bruce Highway to Gladstone on January 2, where he photographed lightning during a storm and posted it to Facebook.

It was following this that he decided to undertake an official duty — apparently in an unplanned response to a local news report.

After waking in Gladstone, Mr Joyce was Googling and saw federal MP Llew O’Brien wanted him to come to Gympie to discuss a fatal accident on the Bruce Highway.

“So I said to the boss: ‘Looks like we’re going to Gympie’,” Mr Joyce told The Gympie Times later that day.

Barnaby Joyce at a cafe in Gympie to help launch MP Llew O'Brien's election campaign. Picutre: Lachie Milllard

He had been dropped off by the highway to meet Mr O’Brien. Mr Joyce has declined to say if he was travelling with Ms Campion at this point. A spokeswoman for Mr O’Brien said he couldn’t remember who Mr Joyce was with.

Within days Mr Joyce was back near Coffs Harbour, holidaying with Ms Campion in a $4000-a-week seaside villa owned by controversial Tamworth businessman Greg Maguire.

Mr Joyce’s office has said the only accommodation expense he claimed on the trip was for the night at Gladstone, where he is believed to have stayed at the Oaks Grand hotel.

The Deputy Prime Minister on holiday with partner Vikki Campion at Palm Cove, Queensland last December.

While his office has confirmed he took no flights during late December or early January, repeated questions about car expenses have gone unanswered.

This is despite Mr Joyce himself saying such questions are a legitimate line of inquiry by the media.

The recently established Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority has yet to report on the period in question and even when it does it will only publish broad information such as aggregated monthly fuel bills.

News Corp Australia has lodged a Freedom of Information request with Mr Joyce’s office over the December-January trip but this is expected to take months to yield details if it is not blocked or curtailed by the bureaucracy.