Question Time: Awkward moment for Barnaby Joyce after he called PM a ‘liar’ in texts

There has been an extremely awkward moment for Barnaby Joyce when an issue arose during Question Time that no one could recall ever happening before.

Barnaby Joyce’s text messages came back to haunt him again in Question Time. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Barnaby Joyce has had to sit through an incredibly awkward moment in Question Time after his texts brutally criticising the Prime Minister were made public last week.

It started to get extremely uncomfortable for Mr Joyce – who sat directly behind Scott Morrison – when Deputy Leader of the Opposition Richard Marles began a question about the messages on Wednesday.

Mr Joyce’s texts, which were sent to a third party before being passed onto Brittany Higgins in March 2021, called Mr Morrison a “hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time”.

“My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister,” Mr Marles began.

“Can the Deputy Prime Minister confirm he’s served with the Prime Minister in the parliament for 15 years and he has served with (him) in the Cabinet for six years, including as Deputy Prime Minister?”

Mr Marles then continued: “When the Deputy Prime Minister says the Prime Minister is quote ‘a hypocrite and liar from my observations and that’s over a long period of time…”

But Mr Marles was immediately cut off.

“Order,” Speaker of the House Andrew Wallace interjected.

“The challenge I have is you can’t just quote someone else that’s using an unparliamentary term,” he said.

Barnaby Joyce was forced to sit through discussions about the word ‘liar’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“To use the term liar is unparliamentary and there have been many examples where it’s been ruled as unparliamentary.

“The fact it is used as a quote by anyone, doesn’t matter who it is, doesn’t negate the fact it’s unparliamentary and it shouldn’t be used.”

He then asked Mr Marles to reword the question.

Instead, Manager of Opposition Business Tony Burke asked Mr Wallace to consider whether a new precedent had been set – because the unparliamentary quote came from the actual minister being asked the question.

“We are dealing with something new here … we haven’t had that before,” he said.

Barnaby Joyce called Mr Morrison a ‘liar’ in the text messages. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Leader of the House Peter Dutton labelled Mr Burke’s request as “nonsense”.

“The assertion that this is somehow requiring a new ruling by you is nonsense and a concoction,” he said.

“The ruling is clear; it doesn’t need reinterpretation.”

Mr Wallace conceded he was not aware of a similar incident happening before.

But he said using a quote was not a loophole for using unparliamentary terms.

He then asked Mr Marles to reword the question, who obliged by replacing the words liar and hypocrite with “observations”.

Mr Joyce responded by taking a dig at Mr Marles, who he noted had been a parliamentary colleague of his for a long time.

Barnaby Joyce said he stood by the Prime Minister. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gary Ramage

”So using his logic, anything I say about him … will also stand,” he said.

He continued to list achievements of the government until his time ran out.

“I worked with the Prime Minister as we’ve dealt with one of the greatest pandemics of modern times,” he said.

“During that period of time, we had one of the greatest successes because we had one of the lowest fatality rates of anywhere on the globe.

“I absolutely stand by this person. This is a great Prime Minister doing a great job,” he finished.

Originally published as Question Time: Awkward moment for Barnaby Joyce after he called PM a ‘liar’ in texts