Barnaby Joyce to get $150,000 for exclusive Seven interview

The Seven network has won a bidding war for the first TV interview with Barnaby Joyce and partner Vikki Campion.

Vikki Campion and Barnaby Joyce with baby Sebastian. Picture: Diimex.

It’s the country’s most sought-after interview, and a likely ratings bonanza: the rights to the exclusive chat with Barnaby Joyce and his partner, Vikki Campion.

The Weekend Australian understands the rights have been won by Seven’s Sunday Night, after a bidding war with Nine’s 60 Minutes.

It is believed Seven paid about $150,000 for the interview.

Most importantly from Seven’s perspective, the nation’s most talked about baby, six-week-old Sebastian Joyce, will be featured in the show.

Seven could not be reached for comment last night. Mr Joyce could also not be reached through his electorate office, although recent speculation has focused on the financial cost of him stepping down as deputy prime minister.

Mr Joyce’s pay was reduced by more than $200,000 a year when he resigned from the role and ­returned to the backbench in February in the wake of revelations that he had fathered a child with Ms Campion.

Mr Joyce, who had been on a salary of more than $416,000 as deputy prime minister, now receives a backbencher’s base salary of $203,030, and has also lost a ­series of perks that went with his former role.

He is also writing a political memoir for publisher New Holland, the sales of which will help cushion the financial blow and deal with the potential impli­cations of his upcoming divorce.

The Weekend Australian has been informed that the interview with Mr Joyce and Ms Campion will be conducted by senior Sunday Night reporter Alex Cullen, who has been working to secure the deal for several months.

The interview will be co-­ordinated by veteran Sunday Night producer Paul Waterhouse.

The deal is believed to have been sealed on Wednesday afternoon, after a keenly contested bidding process. Network sources claimed that both Mr Joyce and Ms Campion had been directly involved in the bidding negotiations. Insiders say they did not use an agent to negotiate the deal.

Sources at both Nine and Seven said the interview would attract a significant audience, given that the relationship had ended Mr Joyce’s leadership career, and also because until now most people had seen the couple together only in photographs taken in public ­places.

Mr Joyce’s loss of entitlements on top of his salary drop, now he is a backbencher, is significant. As leader of the Nationals, he enjoyed access to charter flights when he travelled for party business — if airline waiting times were too long — and Comcar travel in capital ­cities. He was also entitled to $276 a night when travelling for ­official business as deputy prime minister and $565 a night as acting prime minister.