Malcolm Turnbull: To set a higher standard

PRIME Minister Malcolm Turnbull has set down a new code of conduct for his ministers in the wake of the Barnaby Joyce scandal.

THIS week, most attention has been focused on Barnaby Joyce and his conduct. There has been a lot of discussion about whether he complied with ministerial standards (and) whether he complied with the requirements for disclosing use of government entitlements.

Barnaby has given me — as I said in the House — an unequivocal assurance that he has complied with the ministerial standards and with both the use and reporting of ministerial and other entitlements.

But I think we know the real issue is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby, by his conduct, has visited on his wife Natalie and their daughters and, indeed, his new partner.

Malcolm Turnbull.

Barnaby made a shocking error of judgment in having an affair with a young woman working in his office. In doing so, he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us.

Our hearts go out to them.

It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through in the glare of publicity. Marriage breakups are dreadful, but to do it, to have to experience it in the full glare of the spotlight, is a dreadful business.

Now Barnaby knows he made that shocking error of judgment. He knows that he let down his wife and daughters and he has apologised for that and to them.

He is taking leave next week and I have encouraged him to take that leave.

I think that he needs that leave. He needs that time to reflect.

He needs that time to seek forgiveness and understanding from his wife and girls.

He needs to make a new home for his partner and their baby, who is coming in April.

Vikki Campion with Barnaby Joyce.

But this raises today, as this has raised this week, some very serious ­issues about the culture of this place, of this Parliament.

There has been a lot of discussion about the Ministerial Code of Conduct. It’s a document that was drafted a long time ago and it gets amended from time to time.

But the truth is that it is deficient. It is truly deficient.

It does not speak strongly enough for the values that we all should live by, values of respect, respectful workplaces, of workplaces where women are respected.

I recognise that respect in workplaces is not entirely a gender issue, of course.

But the truth is, as we know, most of the ministers, most of the bosses in this building if you like, are men and there is a gender, a real gender perspective here.

I am making today some changes to the ministerial standards.

I want to say that these will not be the last ones I will make. I will be working through this rather old document and making sure that it speaks clearly about the values of respect in workplaces, the values of integrity that Australians expect us to have.

Still image from Barnaby Joyce's statement video regarding his relationship with ex-staffer Vikki Campion and the breakdown of his marriage to wife Natalie.

Now let me read the additional words that I am including as of today: “This statement is not and cannot be a comprehensive statement of rules.

“Ministers need to exercise their judgment and their common sense in complying with both the principles and spirit of the standards and their letter.

“Ministers must recognise that while they are entitled to privacy in personal matters, they occupy positions of great responsibility and public trust. The public have high expectations of them in terms of their personal conduct and decorum.

“Ministers should be very conscious that their spouses and children sacrifice a great deal so they can carry on their political career.

“Their families deserve honour and respect. Ministers should also recognise that they must lead by example. Values should be lived.”

So as you will see, I have today added to these standards a very clear and unequivocal provision:

“Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with their staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards.”

Malcolm Turnbull says this first change to the ministerial code of conduct won’t be the last. Picture: AAP

While this new standard is very specific, ministers should be acutely aware of the context in which I am making this change and the need for them always to behave in their personal relations with others, especially their staff, the staff of other ministers or members of the Australian public service, with integrity and respect.

Now, I think we all know that Barnaby’s error of judgment, that is the foundation of the woes that have followed, particularly for his family and indeed for his new partner.

That error of judgment is something that for a very long time, people in this building and indeed even in the Press Gallery have regarded as being a personal or a private matter.

I have no interest in prying into people’s personal or private affairs at all.

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I am not here to moralise, but we must recognise that whatever may have been acceptable, or to which a blind eye was turned in the past, today in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them.

It is a very bad workplace practice. Everybody knows that no good comes of it.

Of course, you know what attitudes in the corporate world and elsewhere are, to this kind of thing.

So, it is about time that this change was made. (It) probably should have been made a long time ago.

While I have inherited this ministerial code from other authors and other prime ministers, ultimately, it is my signature on it and mine alone.

This is the standard that I will hold, from this day forth, all of my ministers to.

This is an edited transcript of the Prime Minister’s remarks concerning ministerial standards made yesterday afternoon.