Who has a right to define Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with Vikki Campion?

BARNABY Joyce and his pregnant girlfriend Vikki Campion have had their first interview together now, but there is one question they still can’t avoid.

THE date that Vikki Campion officially became Barnaby Joyce’s partner has again become a focus after the couple’s first interview together.

The Deputy Prime Minister and his pregnant partner were interviewed by Fairfax Media from their Armidale home.

Clarifying a relationship status can be a tricky business at the best of times but it’s even more of a minefield when a career depends on it.

Essentially Mr Joyce and Ms Campion are grappling with something that every new couple goes through — when is it official?

For some it can be the first time you call someone your “girlfriend”, for others it’s when you change your Facebook relationship status. One party may get there faster than the other.

But what about if you are already married and then get another woman pregnant?

“It is without a shadow of a doubt that Vikki Campion is my partner now,” Mr Joyce said this month, after images of his pregnant girlfriend was splashed on the front page of The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Joyce has left his wife and the couple are now living together so it would be hard to argue otherwise.

The question is, was she his “partner” at the time she was working with him or for Resource Minister Matt Canavan’s office?

The timing is important because the ministerial code of conduct forbids frontbenchers employing “close” relatives or partners, or from getting them work in other ministerial offices “without the prime minister’s express approval”.

Many in the media and throughout the agriculture sector became aware of rumours of a relationship many months before it was revealed.

Mr Joyce’s baby with Ms Campion is due in mid-April so it’s clear she was pregnant at the time Mr Joyce was campaigning to win back his seat in November.

It’s also likely she was already pregnant in late-July and early-August when she returned to Mr Joyce’s office for a number of weeks, after being transferred to Mr Canavan’s office earlier.

Vicki Campion is pregnant with Barnaby Joyce’s baby. Picture: John Grainger

“When she worked in my office, she was not my partner,” Mr Joyce has said.

“When she worked in Matt Canavan’s office, she was not my partner. And Damian Drum was not a minister.”

He reiterated those comments again yesterday in an interview with Fairfax saying: “She wasn’t my partner when she started, she wasn’t my partner when she worked for Matt. We didn’t breach the code.”

According to The Daily Telegraph, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told MPs in August he had been reassured by Mr Joyce the “affair was over”.

Mr Joyce has never clarified when he did consider Ms Campion to be his “partner”, although he acknowledged the breakdown of his marriage in December. Privately, like any couple, they would have a special date to commemorate.

The code of conduct does not define “partner” and so in both the private and public sphere, the date Mr Joyce and Ms Campion made it official is largely up to them to decide.

The controversy around their relationship status has prompted Mr Turnbull to introduce a new clause to the code that is much more black and white: Ministers are now banned from engaging in “sexual relations with their staff” at all.

TIMELINE

May 2016 — Vikki Campion starts working with Barnaby Joyce’s election campaign as a media adviser.

August — She joins his staff and splits with her fiance John Bergin, three months before their wedding.

December — Mr Joyce’s chief of staff Di Hallam reportedly asks for approval to have Ms Campion transferred out of his office. Ms Hallam later quits to take up departmental role.

February 2017 — Ms Campion and Mr Joyce are photographed in a Sydney bar.

April — Mr Joyce’s wife Natalie reportedly confronts Ms Campion in Tamworth. Ms Campion is transferred to Resources Minister Matt Canavan’s office to work as an adviser. Husband and wife try to make the marriage work.

May — Colleagues say Mr Joyce was “a mess” at the NSW Nationals conference.

June — Mr Joyce attends the midwinter ball in Canberra with his wife.

July — Ms Campion leaves Mr Canavan’s office after he quits frontbench over citizenship and temporarily goes back to Joyce’s office.

August — Ms Campion joins Nationals MP Damian Drum’s office as social media adviser, a position that was specially created for her as he already had a media adviser. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is reportedly reassured the affair between Joyce and Campion is over. She is likely already pregnant at this stage.

September — Ms Campion is seen managing Mr Joyce media events at federal Nationals conference in Canberra. His wife reportedly asks family friend, Catholic priest Father Frank Brennan to counsel her husband.

October — Ms Campion reportedly takes stress leave.

November — A man reportedly angers Joyce during his by-election campaign by saying: “Say hello to your mistress”. Mrs Joyce goes on holiday with her daughter to Bali.

December — Ms Campion’s redundancy package is approved and the couple move into a rent-free Armidale property.

January 2018 — Mr Joyce and Ms Campion go on holidays together in north Queensland and the NSW north coast.

February — Mr Joyce reveals Ms Campion is now his partner.

Mid-April — Couple’s baby is due.