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The questions Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion’s $150k interview failed to ask

THE man who scored the “tell-all” interview with Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion has explained why answers to some big questions never made it to air.

Debbie SchippDebbie Schipp
4 min read
June 4, 2018 - 4:37PM
"They're gonna come after you" Joyce and Campion tell all

THE journalist who scored the exclusive interview with former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and his partner Vikki Campion has hit back against critics who say he failed to ask the pair the big questions.

The backlash was swift against Sunday Night reporter Alex Cullen for not asking whether their relationship had led to any taxpayer-funded travel rorts or about the sexual misconduct claims that had added pressure on Mr Joyce to resign.

Taking to Twitter this afternoon, Cullen said he did ask questions on these issues but the responses were left off the broadcast because the responses were “the same as we’ve heard time and time again”.

“Vehemently denied hence nothing new,” Cullen wrote.

INTERVIEW A TURN-OFF

Meanwhile, the $150,000 Channel 7 paid for the interview didn’t lead to the ratings spike the network would have wished for its flagship current affairs show.

An average 631,000 metropolitan viewers tuned in for the Barnaby and Vikki show on Seven — well short of the million-plus Seven executives would have hoped for in return for the outlay — although when regional viewers were included, the numbers did hit one million.

The metro figures were up on the average 440,000 metro who had watched the previous week’s Sunday Night special on Jacqui Lambie, but less than the 683,000 who watched Sunday Night on May 6.

Meanwhile, rival 60 Minutes last night attracted an average 429,000 metropolitan viewers.

60 Minutes has dominated its rival all year, ahead of last night it was averaging 717,000 five-city viewers to Sunday Night’s 591,000.

Viewers deserted in droves — 882,000 metro viewers watched House Rules on Seven, which was broadcast before Sunday night and was the most popular non-news show of the night.

But when Sunday Night began, 250,000 viewers tuned out.

QUESTIONS MISSED

Seven was criticised for the hour-long interview — My Joyce declared issues like the timing of the affair off limits when they posed by journalist Alex Cullen, but there were other issues that weren’t followed and questions that just weren’t asked,

They included:

1. Ms Campion moved into parliamentary roles in other ministerial offices after she left Mr Joyce’s office — including one to a position that had not previously existed. She was transferred from Mr Joyce’s office to roles in the office of Resources Minister Matt Canavan, and another in the office of Nationals’ Whip Damian Drum. Sunday Night did not ask either about the transfers, the jobs, or how those appointments were made.

2. Mr Joyce said he knew he would lose the position of Deputy PM the moment Ms Campion became pregnant in mid-2017.

“My job was … I was gonna lose my job as the deputy prime minister and that was … And that was in front. And you know what? All I was doing is just hoping and praying for a healthy … healthy baby,” he said. But he was not asked why he then went on to fight a by-election — triggered by his dual citizenship — in December without revealing his personal situation, despite being questioned by journalists repeatedly at the time about his private life.

Mr Joyce split from his wife after he won the by-election.

He did not resign as deputy PM or Nationals leader until January.

3. Mr Joyce was also not asked why, during the same-sex marriage debate last year, he campaigned heavily against same-sex marriage, using the sanctity of marriage as an argument, knowing his own marriage was in tatters.

4. Mr Joyce was not asked about his expense claims and an investigation into travel spending, including a summer trip late last year up and down the east coast of Australia. Ms Campion accompanied him on that trip, despite having left her employment in his office in April. He has so far declined to reveal if the 11-day trip was paid for by him, or came out of the public purse. Sunday Night did not ask questions about how public money was spent on their travel, both before and after Ms Campion worked in his office.

An investigation into his travel with Ms Campion by the independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority is ongoing. Mr Joyce has said previously his expense claims had already been thoroughly probed, nothing had been found, and he was confident the investigation would find no wrongdoing.

Vikki Campion said she was ‘overwhelmed’ to discover she was pregnant in winter 2017 and had taken the pregnancy test alone. Picture: Channel 7
Vikki Campion said she was ‘overwhelmed’ to discover she was pregnant in winter 2017 and had taken the pregnancy test alone. Picture: Channel 7

5. The pair revealed their angst that their relationship, and pregnancy, were revealed via a paparazzi picture of Ms Campion pregnant earlier his year. Mr Joyce ventured he would have preferred to provide a nicer picture of the pregnancy when it was revealed. “I think that the way that they did it was wrong,” he said. Sunday Night did not quiz the pair on why, in at least six months spent hiding the affair and pregnancy, they did not take control of the message and announce it, rather than be outed. Mr Joyce did give a hint that in the end, it might have come down to sheer stubbornness.

“I suppose towards the end I was fighting more out of spite than logic, and just thinking ‘I’m not going to let these people beat us’,” he said.

Mr Joyce was not asked when it was that he revealed the relationship to colleagues in the government.

6. The couple refused to name, nor were they greatly pressed to do so by Sunday Night — the “scum of the earth” who pressured them to terminate the pregnancy. But Ms Campion said in the end “the entire ordeal — you know, being pressured for an abortion, and, you know, the frenzy of having to hide — it was all totally worth it”.

“He’s just beautiful,” she said.

Vikki Campion said baby Sebastian’s conception was a ‘miracle’ because she had been told by doctors she would not have children. Picture: Channel 7
Vikki Campion said baby Sebastian’s conception was a ‘miracle’ because she had been told by doctors she would not have children. Picture: Channel 7

As social media delivered its verdict on the interview, some saw the humour.

Some suggested Channel 7 wasn’t getting bang for its buck with the $150,000 exclusive.

Others saw the funny side of Mr Joyce’s awkward exchange with Ms Campion over the “grey issue” of paternity episode.

Ms Campion gave birth to Sebastian Curtis Scott Joyce in April this year.

Mr Joyce is on personal leave from his parliamentary duties until June 15.

Some just can’t wait for the reality show.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/the-questions-barnaby-joyce-and-vikki-campions-150k-interview-failed-to-ask/news-story/1751292fdaa69ffadc8bba12c178376d