Q&A: Barnaby Joyce labelled a hypocrite, Kenny goes to bat for Jim Molan and media reform

Barnaby Joyce has been savaged over his extramarital affair, especially due to his stance on same-sex marriage.

The Australian’s Chris Kenny on the ABC’s Q&A program.

BARNABY JOYCE

Guardian columnist Van Badham has accused Barnaby Joyce of being a “massive staggering hypocrite” for “passing judgment” on the LGBTQI community when his own marriage was falling apart.

In an impassioned speech on ABC’s Q&A last night, Badham’s voice shook as she addressed Mr Joyce’s statements on same-sex marriage.

“As someone who watched family members go through months of hell with the postal survey,” Badham said. “I find his conduct disgraceful.”

The Australian’s Chris Kenny said his greatest concern was the fact that Barnaby Joyce would take up the reins and serve as Acting Prime Minister, while Malcolm Turnbull heads to the US next week.

“He has turned himself into a massive political handicap for the government,” Kenny said. “He’s embarrassed his Prime Minister. Next week to the horror of many watching this program, our Prime Minister will be meeting President Donald Trump and Barnaby Joyce will be Acting Prime Minister of this country.”

Kenny said it would be a “very difficult position” for Mr Joyce to hold when he “left his own Prime Minister last Friday in the glare of the television lights and cameras, having to defend this ugly personal story and not knowing quite what to say”.

Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson said the Deputy Prime Minister’s affair with staffer Vikki Campion deserved the media attention it received.

“Barnaby gave up his right to privacy by the way he handled the issue,” Mr Hewson said.

When asked if Mr Joyce’s political career was in jeopardy, the former Liberal leader said he thought his future was in danger “for quite some time”.

“He was the cause of distraction and disruption last year in the government. His team actually led the debate in a whole lot of areas to the detriment of the government,” Mr Hewson said.

“I don’t think he understands unity or the significance of that, and so in the course of last year they played a pretty disruptive role.”

READ MORE: ‘Barnaby’s hold on power at risk over affair’

While, Queensland Labor MP Terri Butler said she wouldn’t judge anyone’s relationships and that Mr Joyce’s conduct was “a matter for the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister to work through”, Liberal senator Linda Reynolds defended her colleague.

“Forty per cent of marriages today sadly break up,” Senator Reynolds said. “Just as everyone deserved privacy to deal with their own painful family circumstances, so do politicians on both sides.”

However, Senator Reynolds criticised The Daily Telegraph in Sydney for putting a photo of a heavily pregnant woman on the front page. “I think it does her a great disservice and women a great disservice,’’ she said.

“Did they need to put that photo on the front page of the paper to make the story? I don’t think they did.”

But, Badham fired back saying it “would have been nice” to see the same “kind of humanity and sensitivity” ahead of the same-sex marriage survey “that judged the quality of other people’s intimate relationships”.

Senator Reynolds rejected her fellow panellist’s argument, saying the columnist was “conflating two different issues”.

“The same-sex survey was an issue of policy and legislation. Now, Barnaby certainly did take a position on that, but that is a separate issue from what he does in his personal life.”

Despite the frisson of tension generated by Mr Joyce’s stand on same-sex marriage, there was a general consensus among the panel when it came to nepotism.

There panellists unanimously noted Mr Joyce’s “poor judgment” when it came to Ms Campion, her role as his former staffer and her appointment to a plum senior role in the Nationals.

.@chriskkenny thinks Barnaby Joyce's career is over #QandA pic.twitter.com/geSIAWISsr

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) February 12, 2018

JIM MOLAN

In a fiery exchange between journalists Chris Kenny and Van Badham, Kenny derided the “confected outrage” of his fellow panellist, who said a far-right video senator Jim Molan shared was “hate material designed deliberately to encourage racism and division in the community”.

While, Badham said criticism of Senator Molan was not “a reflection of what Australians think of the defence force”, it’s a criticism of how the senator “is using it to represent them”, Kenny likened the furore surrounding the videos to “jihad denialism”.

Kenny said controversy surrounding the videos was intrinsically linked to an idea “we always have to somehow talk down the prop of Islamist extremist violence and fundamentalism and try to minimise it”.

While, Badham agreed Greens MP Adam Bandt’s comments “were completely out of line”, she thought the resulting “culture war” masked a more serious issue regarding the mental health of Australian soldiers, who had served overseas.

However, Kenny defended Senator Molan’s conduct, saying the senator “shared videos of news events that are highly relevant to what’s going on in Europe at the moment and relevant to what’s happening in Australia now”.

READ MORE: ‘Greens under fire over attack on Jim Molan during Army service’

Despite Badham’s insistence Senator Molan had shared unverified material from a fascist organisation, Kenny shot back: “The videos were used in court. You want to censor this from the public because it doesn’t suit your agenda.”

.@chriskkenny thought the videos were relevant and there is jihad denialism in public. @vanbadham believes he shared hate material from a fascist org #QandA pic.twitter.com/8osQMlVH7a

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) February 12, 2018

He said attempts to stifle sensible discussion about the threat of Islamist extremism in Australia was “nonsensical”, “juvenile and it does not help us combat the issue”.

John Hewson, described the incident as a “very sad error of judgment”, but described Senator Molan as an “outstanding Australian with first-hand experience of exactly what Chris and others are talking about he should use that platform of being a senator to make those arguments”.

Linda Reynolds said she knew Senator Molan “very well personally and professionally” and “there is nobody I now who is less racist or less Islamophobic than he is”.

ABC REFORM

When asked whether senator Cory Bernardi’s call for radical reform of the ABC was warranted, Chris Kenny said he did have “grave concerns” about bias at the national broadcaster.

While Kenny said there wasn’t a “great amount of work that needs to be done” to fix these issues, as a “big time consumer of the ABC” he thought the broadcaster needs to “read its charter”.

Despite praising the ABC’s “fine objective reporters and producers”, Kenny said it was essential the broadcaster focused “more on ideology or political position” and avoided left-wing bias.

When Linda Reynolds deflected the question, instead focusing on an argument with Senator Bernardi last week over women in the military, Kenny joked the Coalition was “dodging their duty when it comes to the ABC again”.

John Hewson said “the arguments about the ABC are exaggerated”, however he voiced his disappointment they hadn’t led the fray when it came to covering climate change.

What reforms would you like to see for the National Broadcaster? @chriskkenny & @vanbadham respond #QandA pic.twitter.com/Cr5eUqsJyq

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) February 12, 2018

SECTION 44

When asked why politicians condemned dual citizenship when Australia was a multicultural society, the panel was divided.

Terri Butler agreed section 44 was “hopelessly anachronistic and irrelevant”, but said she didn’t think leaders condemned dual citizenship but were frustrated by being put in the “ineligible category because of the Constitution”.

The discussion quickly turned to the benefits of holding a referendum to resolve section 44, which was endorsed by Linda Reynolds, who chairs the joint standing committee on electoral matters.

The committee chairwoman, who is currently preparing a bipartisan report on the dual-citizenship fiasco, said once a report was released, “Australians will have to have a national debate”.

However, Kenny disagreed saying he was in favour of keeping the Constitution as it was.

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask that our federal politicians are loyal to this country alone,” Kenny said.

“I don’t want a foreign minister who is also a citizen of the US sitting in negotiations between Australian and the US.”

Van Badham said she loved being a dual citizen and any future referendums needed to include issues such as Australia becoming a republic and a “real treaty with the First Nations people of this country”.

But Kenny used the opportunity to slam Labor’s treatment of its members, saying: “if you want to keep your dual citizenship, get elected for the federal Parliament for the Labor Party, because their dual citizens are sitting there without being referred to the High Court”.

.@vanbadham thinks it's a great opportunity to revise our constitution. John Hewson agrees that it should be done #QandA pic.twitter.com/6RYN3VDdqB

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) February 12, 2018