Pregnant Vikki Campion was not Barnaby Joyce’s partner, Malcolm Turnbull says
MALCOLM Turnbull says Barnaby Joyce has not breached the ministerial code of conduct because Vikki Campion was not Mr Joyce’s partner in December when she was five months pregnant.
NSW
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PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull claims Vikki Campion was not Barnaby Joyce’s partner in December when she was five months pregnant and spent the summer holidaying with the Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr Turnbull said that Mr Joyce had not breached the ministerial code of conduct, which bans members of the Executive Government from employing their colleagues’ partners as Ms Campion was not Mr Joyce’s partner at the time.
“The Deputy Prime Minister did not breach the ministerial code of conduct because Ms Campion was not his partner at the time of the staff appointments,” Mr Turnbull’s spokesman said.
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“The Prime Minister was not aware of the relationship, as National Party staffing is a matter for the National Party.”
Mr Turnbull says neither he nor his office had any role in creating a job for Ms Campion.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus asked the prime minister in parliament this afternoon whether he or his office was involved in creating the position for Ms Campion.
Mr Turnbull said the Nationals were provided with a specific number of personal staff positions as a share of the government’s overall staffing pool.
“The distribution of those staff members between Nationals offices is a matter for the National Party,” Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Joyce had not formally declared Ms Campion was his spouse as he was trying to keep the relationships under wraps from the media.
Ms Campion is still not listed as Mr Joyce’s partner, two months out from their baby’s due date.
Mr Joyce’s compliance with the ministerial code of conduct is being scrutinised after his girlfriend, Vikki Campion, received a job in his office in August last year, and was permitted to move to the office of Joyce’s colleague Damian Drum.
Mr Joyce employed Ms Campion in his office around late July and early August for a matter of weeks, after Mr Canavan resigned from his cabinet position on July 25 ahead of a High Court determination on his Italian citizenship.
Mr Joyce’s office has not responded to questions about the precise dates Ms Campion worked in his office, but the employment was temporary, understood to be for several weeks, before a new job was created for her in Chief Nationals Whip Damian Drum’s office.
Mr Drum is understood to have then employed Ms Campion from late August until December — when Ms Campion and Mr Joyce were officially a couple and were around five months pregnant. They holidayed together that same month in Queensland.
Under the rules, Ms Campion’s employment with Mr Drum, whose office of Whip qualifies as a member of the Executive Government, required the “express approval” of Mr Turnbull’s office.
The Prime Minister’s express approval was also required for the period that Campion was employed for the period late July to early August.
The Ministerial Code of Conduct 2.23 states: “Ministers’ close relatives and partners are not to be appointed to positions in their ministerial or electorate offices, and must not be employed in the offices of other members of the Executive Government without the Prime Minister’s express approval.
“A close relative or partner of a Minister is not to be appointed to any position in an agency in the Minister’s own portfolio if the appointment is subject to the agreement of the Minister or Cabinet.”
Former Turnbull government cities minister Jamie Briggs resigned from the frontbench in late 2015 after breaching the ministerial code of conduct following a late night incident with a female public servant in Hong Kong.
In 2009, Joel Fitzgibbon resigned as defence minister after admitting he had not complied with the ministerial code.
That followed revelations his ministerial office was used for a meeting between a major American health insurer, his brother Mark who was the boss of health fund NIB, and government officials.
Former prime minister John Howard lost a number of ministers during his first term due to breaches of ministerial codes of conduct, including transport minister John Sharp, science minister Peter McGauran and administrative services minister David Jull.