Barnaby Joyce quits: It was time to go
GOOD riddance Barnaby. If you can’t conduct your private life with dignity, how can we trust you to run our country?
Susie O'Brien
Don't miss out on the headlines from Susie O'Brien. Followed categories will be added to My News.
GOOD riddance Barnaby.
If you can’t conduct your private life with dignity, how can we trust you to run our country?
In the end, the problems faced by former Nationals Leader Barnaby Joyce were insurmountable.
He had to go.
It was just a matter of time.
LATEST NEWS: Barnaby Joyce quits as Nationals leader
MORE: How Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion’s affair happened
REVEALED: Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion’s 3000km road trip
He lost the confidence of colleagues.
He lost the respect of the electorate.
And he lost the trust of the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Even without the latest sexual harassment allegations, his goose was still cooked.
Joyce has just announced he will stay on as member for New England, but will have a big job in regaining his former level of support among voters.
I don’t have much sympathy for Joyce because he doesn’t seem to have any insight into the fact that this is entirely a problem of his own making.
The Australian people don’t particularly like our leaders to have personal lives in disarray.
We don’t like men in positions of trust and respect cheating on their wives.
We don’t like hearing that taxpayers’ money may have been spent cleaning up the mess the affair caused.
And we don’t like the suggestion that high-paid jobs were allegedly found to accommodate the man’s new partner.
In an interview this week Joyce invited the public to feel sorry for him.
I don’t.
So the press are camped outside his free apartment where he’s been living with his new partner, Vicki Campion?
They are entitled to be doing their job.
So Joyce and Campion will have to move?
It’s not our fault.
So people are making moral judgments about Joyce’s actions?
Too bad. Such scrutiny is part of public life.
Joyce has slammed media intrusion into Campion’s private life, but he made their relationship our business because of the way it was conducted in a public forum.
Joyce said he made the decision to resign as a “circuit breaker” but this is unlikely to be the case.
He still hasn’t acknowledged he’s done anything wrong, and he still hasn’t clarified exactly what taxpayer funds were spent and where.
Until he takes responsibility for this sorry situation, Joyce will continue to lose support despite his resignation today.
I don’t feel sorry for him, but I am sorry for his wife and four daughters who have been deeply affected by his actions.
LATEST NEWS: Barnaby Joyce quits as Nationals leader
MORE: How Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion’s affair happened
REVEALED: Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion’s 3000km road trip