Malcolm Turnbull ‘conscious of hurt’ suffered by Natalie Joyce and her daughters
PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he and wife Lucy are acutely aware of the hurt Barnaby Joyce’s marriage breakdown has caused his estranged wife and daughters.
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PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he and wife Lucy are acutely aware of the hurt Barnaby Joyce’s marriage breakdown has caused his estranged wife and daughters.
Mr Turnbull would not, however, be drawn on revelations in today’s Daily Telegraph the deputy prime minister’s new partner and former staffer Vikki Campion was given a posting in a colleague’s office last year, saying he did not want to publicly discuss private matters.
“It is a tough and distressing episode and I am very conscious - Lucy and I are very conscious - of the hurt occasioned to Natalie and their daughters in particular,” he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
“So that’s why I don’t want to add or contribute to the discussion about it.”
The Daily Telegraph reported today Mr Joyce’s close ally, Resources Minister Matt Canavan, created a new high-salary job for Ms Campion as the affair created serious dysfunction in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office.
Campion, who is now living with Mr Joyce and is pregnant with his child, was given a new role as a senior adviser in Queensland Senator Canavan’s office working on his social and digital media in April last year, even as others within the party became increasingly concerned at the situation.
JOYCE’S WIFE ‘DECEIVED AND HURT’ BY BABY NEWS
Mr Canavan did not have a full-time staff member in this role prior to Ms Campion’s appointment and there is no suggestion Ms Campion did not merit being employed in the new position.
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said today he was confident the appointment was above board, saying “maybe that’s the job that Matt Canavan wanted in his office at that time”.
“I don’t want to go down the track where I become the spokesman for the private lives of my cabinet colleagues, I think that is a bit unfair on me,” Mr Pyne told Nine Network this morning.
“I’m not in the gun on this story and I think it’s highly unlikely anything untoward occurred.
“I’m sure it was all entirely appropriate, but again that’s a matter that Matt Canavan needs to respond to, not me.”
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said staffing was a matter for the government and he was not aware of the circumstances or details.
The latest developments came as the Prime Minister rejected the need for Australia to follow the US and ban MPs from sleeping with their staff members.
“Adults, particularly elected officials, members of parliament, ministers, all have to be accountable for their actions, as grown ups we are all accountable for our actions and the relations between consenting adults is not something that normally you would be justified in seeking to regulate,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Adults can conduct their relationships, if it is consensual, respectful, that is their right.”