Barnaby Joyce immoral but not wrong, Peter Dutton says

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the Deputy Prime Minister does not need to be sanctioned as he broke no laws.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has weighed in on the scandal engulfing Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Picture: AAP

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says Barnaby Joyce’s affair with a former staffer was immoral but he did not need to be sanctioned as he broke no laws.

Mr Dutton said the Deputy Prime Minister was embroiled in a “mess of his own making” but noted Malcolm Turnbull did not have a say in the Nationals’ leadership.

“He has made a mistake and you can only feel for his wife and his daughters and the whole situation is a mess of his making, he admits that,” Mr Dutton told Sydney radio station 2GB.

“Has he broken the law? No. Has he acted immorally? Yes.”

“The other story could be he had an affair with someone, the girl had got pregnant and he abandoned her or walked away from that arrangement, so there is no easy way of talking about it.

Mr Dutton said the Prime Minister “doesn’t hire or fire” the Nationals leader.

“There is a whole human aspect to this and it is difficult and I, like everybody, feel particularly for the family and for the kids involved,” he said.

Labor this morning failed in its attempt to move a motion in the House of Representatives to demand Malcolm Turnbull sacks Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister. Labor’s motion stated Mr Joyce failed to uphold ministerial standards because he asked for a “gift” of free rental accommodation from his millionaire business friend Greg Maguire.

In defending himself, Mr Joyce contradicted Mr Maguire’s public statements by saying he was offered the rental accommodation.

Mr Maguire told The Australian on Monday that Mr Joyce asked if he could stay in his Armidale apartment because he had nowhere else to go following the breakup of his marriage.

“I did not approach Mr Maguire for any help. What I can also say is that he made the approach to me when I was not a minister, I was not a member of parliament,” Mr Joyce told the House, in reference to the fact he had been kicked out of parliament over dual citizenship at the time he started living in the Armidale property.

“What I can also state is that I offered to pay for it. I can also state that basically, he said, as a friend, he would not take any money, that he was quite happy to help me for that period of time.”

Bill Shorten said Mr Joyce’s position had become “untenable”.

“Australians want us to stop talking about ourselves and get on with talking about them, I think Mr Joyce’s position is untenable and I think Malcolm Turnbull: time for leadership, you need to act,” Mr Shorten said this morning.

“Most Australians are not interested in Barnaby Joyce’s private life, but there are conflicts of interest coming out daily which are being revealed. The Prime Minister has a ministerial code of conduct which if he doesn’t uphold is not worth the paper it is written on.”