BARNABY’S CHOICE MAY MEAN BARNABY JOYCE BE GONE
Last week’s revelations about Barnaby Joyce’s affair with a now-pregnant younger ex-staffer presented a tough ethical test at several levels. And not just for Joyce.
Last week’s revelations about Barnaby Joyce’s affair with a now-pregnant younger ex-staffer presented a tough ethical test at several levels. And not just for Joyce.
The first test for the media was whether the story should have even been published at all. Some felt the Daily Telegraph’s exclusive, by Sharri Markson, violated the privacy of Joyce, his estranged wife Natalie and Joyce’s former staffer Vikki Campion (previously a much-admired journalist at this newspaper).
Former Labor senator and powerbroker Graham Richardson found himself torn. “While there is an argument that publication was reasonable in the circumstances,” he wrote in The Australian, “there is a real debate about whether it was right or not.”
Then came the Daily Telegraph’s subsequent scoops about tax-funded parliamentary advisor jobs created for Campion after she’d been moved from Joyce’s office, at which point Richardson swung firmly to the “publish” camp. Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek on Sunday said Labor would pursue this angle after several Labor types earlier disavowed publication.
“The only area in which there is a genuine public interest is in the area of the expenditure of taxpayer funds,” Plibersek told the ABC. “There have been questions over the last couple of days about jobs that have been created for Vikki Campion (and) the expenditure of tax payer funded travel.”
But funding was central even before it was discovered that Campion had shifted to new jobs with Nationals MPs Matt Canavan and Damian Drum. She had previously been a highly-paid and influential advisor for Joyce, who used the word “private” 28 times within fewer than 13 minutes during an interview last week with the ABC’s Leigh Sales.
“Private matters should remain private and that's part of my private life,” Joyce said. “I'll say that private matters remain private and I'm going to keep my private life private.”
Except that he’s a public figure receiving public funding whose girlfriend is walking around pregnant in public, having been set up with publically-funded jobs for public representatives. Aside from that, obviously, this is purely a private matter.
The next test was for conservatives who are usually hawks on the whole issue of public obligation when it comes to taxes. Quite a few were very defensive of Joyce, whose personality and policies understandably win him many fans on the Right. I’m a fan, too. But you can’t bend the rules just because a certain player is on your team.
A third test was personal. Vikki Campion is a friend of mine.
She is thoughtful, creative and hilarious, with a particular talent for death metal vocals at karaoke clubs. Also, Vikki might be one of the least politically-correct journalists I’ve ever known.
Some of her one-liners are flat-out wicked. She once listened as a very young staffer wailed about the theft of her expensive new bicycle. “Stealing bikes,” Vikki said, in a perfectly calming and empathetic tone, “is easy and fun.”
It hurts to see Vikki involved in this, but, again, a personal impulse to downplay the story must be measured against political implications and – above all – the expenditure of taxes.
Also, consider another aspect of the situation Joyce has engineered for himself. Miranda Devine summarised it acutely in the Sunday Telegraph: “Do you act like a faithless bastard by leaving your wife of 24 years and four children, or by abandoning your mistress and unborn child?”
The final test is one of basic logic. Moral challenges tend to stretch mental ability and distort comprehension, as was made obvious by a comment piece from ABC presenter and Fairfax contributor Julia Baird.
“There can be few greater examples of the double standard of reporting in Australian politics than that of Barnaby Joyce's ‘love child’,” Baird wrote, followed by this astonishing and biologically-impossible notion:
“If it were, say, Joyce Joyce, a married female party leader and deputy prime minister who impregnated a younger staffer, the story would have been pursued with great vigour and determination months ago.”
Damn right it would, and not just because it involved a politician. A female impregnating a male? Yep. That’d be a story.
Remarkably, Fairfax titles ran that line on several online front pages before someone realised exactly what Baird was on about. The piece was eventually re-written to better reflect basic realities.
Count that as a fail. One of many so far in this case, and of many to come.
(This was Monday’s Daily Telegraph column. Please subscribe to receive columns as soon as they are published.)