‘Sh**head’: Barnaby Joyce’s fury over Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘bonk ban’, treatment of his affair with Vikki Campion

Barnaby Joyce has slammed former PM Malcolm Turnbull as “a sh*thead” in a blunt assessment of his infamous ban on ministers having sex with their staffers.

Barnaby Joyce has slammed former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as “a sh*thead” in a blunt assessment of his infamous ban on ministers having sex with their staffers.

The former deputy prime minister has offered his full and frank character assessment in a new ABC documentary, where he rages over the intrusion into his “private life”.

“I was furious,” the then-deputy prime minister recalls.

“I didn’t see him as a prime minister. I just saw him as an idiot.”

Barnaby Joyce infamously had a relationship with his press secretary Vicki Campion which resulted in the end of his marriage to his first wife.

The affair had become public after a front-page splash in The Daily Telegraph, written by Sharri Markson and featuring a pregnant Vicki Campion crossing the road under the headline “BUNDLE OF JOYCE”.

Barnaby Joyce has slammed former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as “a sh*thead” over his treatment of his affair with his former staffer Vikki Campion. Picture: Channel 7

He admits in the program he lied about the relationship nine months earlier in May 2017 about a report she had heard that Joyce had been spotted with Campion, then his media assistant, in a Canberra doctor’s surgery.

“The insinuation, of course, was that she was pregnant,” recounts Mr Turnbull.

“Are you in a relationship with Vikki? Is this right?” Joyce recalls Turnbull asking.

“I definitely lied to him because it wasn’t his right to know.”

“At the start, Turnbull and I got along splendidly,” says Mr Joyce. “I was a crucial part of Malcolm’s Praetorian Guard … I protected him. I really did.”

But when he announced the extra-marital affair to the world at a press conference and confirmed he was introducing a “bonk ban” Mr Joyce saw red.

“Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office,” Mr Turnbull said.

“In doing so he has set off a world of woe for [his wife and daughters] and appalled all of us.”

Mr Joyce said former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to announce his extra-marital affair and introduce a bonk ban destroyed their relationship. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Joyce tells the ABC’s Nemesis document that it was a moment that destroyed their relationship.

“I just thought, obviously this is terminal. Our relationship’s terminal now. It’s all over,’’ he said.

“It was a nightmare. At the worst, we were locked in a house and people were having to put food under a gate at the back of this place to try and get food into us. Couldn’t leave. Cameras everywhere,” he says.

“We had them shooting in front of us, beside us and behind us. And they were going for the head.”

But Mr Turnbull defended the sex ban on the program that became colloquially known as “the bonk ban.”

“People are saying, ‘Well, we are paying you to go to Canberra to work and run the country. We’re not paying you to go and get drunk and have love affairs with your staff,’” Mr Turnbull said.

“So I thought, ‘We should spell it out.’”

“It was a nightmare”: Mr Joyce commented on the impact the public announcement had on his personal life. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

On the day of his press conference Mr Joyce confronted Mr Turnbull in the Prime Minister’s office.

“I said, ‘What on earth was that about?’” Mr Joyce remembers telling Mr Turnbull.

“That is inept. Why are you involving yourself in my personal life?”

“I strongly believe it was a plan by Morrison to get rid of me … to create chaos, to peel me off from Turnbull or to completely break down the relationship.

“I think he was an instigator of the bonk ban. I think Turnbull’s the narrator of it and Morrison was the architect of it.”

Mr Morrison denies the “bonk ban” was his idea saying “that is nonsense. It was Malcolm’s idea.”

“But I can tell you what. He had a very enthusiastic supporter in me around that table,’’ he said.

“I’ve been around Canberra a long time. I know it goes on and it destroys families. And this was a sensible, mature safeguard in an executive government.

“He was under an enormous amount of strain in his personal life, and then his professional life collapsed as a result.”