Barnaby Joyce attacks ‘inept’ Turnbull for ‘causing further harm’
As Malcolm Turnbull goes into damage control with the Nats over Barnaby Joyce, his criticism appears to have galvanised them.
- Joyce: PM’s comments inept
- Turnbull responds to Joyce
- Shorten: full-blown political crisis
- Libs skipping Batman boosts Greens
Barnaby Joyce has attacked Malcolm Turnbull at a dramatic press conference and suggested the Liberal leader is improperly intervening in the leadership of the National Party. The Deputy Prime Minister branded the Prime Minister’s public criticism of him yesterday as “inept” and “causing further harm”.
Mr Turnbull responded to Mr Joyce’s explosive comments about him this afternoon, standing by his criticisms of his conduct but stressing he was not interfering in the National Party’s deliberations.
Bill Shorten says the government is in a “full blown political crisis” and has demanded Mr Turnbull have the “courage” to sack Mr Joyce from his cabinet.
We’re following today’s developments here.
6.35pm: PM’s swipe may have backfired
Malcolm Turnbull’s call for Barnaby Joyce to consider his position may have backfired, with some Nationals digging in even more firmly behind their leader.
AAP understands the pressure has only made some Nationals stand even more firmly behind Mr Joyce.
They believe none of the allegations of misuse of taxpayer funds have stuck and the scandal has become a media obsession.
Mr Joyce said today the pressure from Mr Turnbull about his leadership was having the opposite effect than the one he intended.
“It always does the same thing in the National party - and I’ve been around this organisation for over a couple of decades - it locks people in,” he said.
“They lock in behind the leader.”
Nationals MP Andrew Broad supports Mr Joyce but reserved the right to change his position on Joyce if evidence of impropriety comes to light.
“There’s been an error of judgment, there’s no doubt about that,” Mr Broad told ABC radio on Friday.
“But I’m still waiting to see if there’s been an abuse of power. If I see that and it’s clear, then I’ll be one of the people talking about what should be the action as a result of that.”
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said Mr Joyce needed some time away after a “torrid” 10 days.
“Barnaby Joyce is still a human being. He has emotions. He has feelings,” Mr Littleproud told ABC radio.
“He needs his own time to able to recharge for his own wellbeing.”
Mr Joyce has been under fire for his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion, the jobs she was given in government offices, and his rent-free use of a townhouse belonging to a rich friend.
- AAP
4.20pm: Ex-Xenophon candidate gets Senate seat
Meanwhile, back to the other issue besetting federal parliament: the dual citizenship saga. South Australian business consultant Tim Storer has today been elected in a special count to replace former Nick Xenophon Team colleague Skye Kakoschke-Moore in the Senate.
But Mr Storer will sit as an independent, having quit NXT last year.
The High Court found Ms Kakoschke-Moore, who stood down in November over her dual citizenship, was not eligible to replace herself despite having renounced her British ties.
The court also found Mr Storer should not be excluded from the special count, despite having quit the party. Today the court received the result of the special count conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission.
-AAP
3.40pm: Premiers balk at ‘bonk ban’
Earlier Nationals backbencher George Christensen spoke out against the new ban on ministers engaging in sexual relations with staffers, labelling it “bonkers”.
“The bonk ban is bonkers! And it shows that the whole attack on Barnaby Joyce is driven by one thing: sex,” he said on Facebook.
Now premiers in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia have ruled out matching Malcolm Turnbull’s formal ban.
A spokesman for Liberal NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she had “no plans to change the ministerial code of conduct”.
“I have other priorities. To be frank with you, I find what’s going on nationally a bit embarrassing for the country,” WA Labor Premier Mark McGowan told reporters today.
“There is various codes of conduct (in WA) ... I really don’t want Western Australia to be dragged into this national circus that’s going on.”
Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has no plans for a sex ban, saying her ministers know the rules. “My ministers know the public has high expectations of them and I expect them to meet those expectations.”
And SA Labor Premier Jay Weatherill said common sense should prevail. “If we start having to put a rule in place every time to legislate for common sense, we’ll be spending a lot of our time making rules,” he said.
Mr Turnbull rewrote the ministerial code of conduct to include the formal ban. It now states: “Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with their staff. Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards.” Mr Joyce said today the Nationals supported the change, but also warned of its ramifications.
“It goes without saying that this will create immense fodder for the good people in the media and it will obviously reverberate across all political parties,” he told reporters in Canberra.
- AAP
2.50pm: Liberals to skip Batman, boosting Greens’ chances
The Liberals won’t run a candidate in the March 17 Batman by-election, boosting the Greens’ chances of winning the seat from the ALP.
Labor’s star candidate Ged Kearney is facing a huge battle to retain the inner-Melbourne seat for the ALP after it was vacated by David Feeney over dual citizenship.
“We are not a vote-channelling machine for Mr Shorten,” Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger told Sky News today.
Mr Feeney won the seat in 2016 in a tight contest with the Greens, on the back of Liberal preferences.
Mr Kroger acknowledged the decision would improve the chances of the Greens winning the seat. “It will certainly make it more likely the Greens will be the favourite to win,” he said.
BREAKING: Michael Kroger confirms Liberals will NOT run in Batman increasing likelihood Greens @alexbhathal will beat Labor's @gedkearney @SkyNewsAust
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) February 16, 2018
Rachel Baxendale 2.20pm: PM: I have not criticised the Nationals
Malcolm Turnbull has responded to Barnaby Joyce’s explosive comments about him earlier today, standing by his criticisms of Mr Joyce’s conduct but stressing he was not interfering in the National Party’s deliberations.
The Prime Minister yesterday hit out at Mr Joyce’s “shocking error of judgement”, saying the Deputy Prime Minister’s affair with a staff member had “appalled us all” and caused a “world of woe” for his estranged wife and daughters.
Mr Joyce hit back this morning, describing the Mr Turnbull’s comments as “inept” and hurtful.
Speaking briefly in Launceston a short time ago, Mr Turnbull said: “I’ve seen Barnaby’s press conference and I understand it’s a very stressful time. But I do want to make a couple of points.
“The first thing is I thank him for his support, for the very important change that I’ve made to the ministerial standards.
“There is a need to have more respectful workplaces, consistent with standards that are applied in the business sector and other parts of our community, and so the change that I’ve made, he has supported, and of course Barnaby and I have discussed that in the course of this week.
“The other point I want to make is about the National Party. I have not sought in any way to influence the deliberations of the National Party.
“Neither I nor my colleagues have made any criticism of the National Party.
“Expressing views of disapproval or criticism of Barnaby’s own conduct is not criticism of the National Party, indeed the sentiments that I expressed yesterday - which I stand by, but I don’t need to repeat again now - those sentiments are quite consistent with those expressed by many members of the National Party itself.
He said the Coalition was “very strong” despite his and Mr Joyce’s criticisms of one another’s conduct and refused to answer more questions.
Mr Turnbull, who is in Launceston with Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman, said he would not be taking questions on the matter given he had answered questions at an earlier press conference in Hobart, before Mr Joyce’s press conference.
- Additional reporting: Matthew Denholm
.@TurnbullMalcolm: I want to thank @Barnaby_Joyce for his support for my change to the ministerial standards. There is a need to have more respectful workplaces consistent with standards that are applied to parts of our community.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 16, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/DCXRF8191u #newsday pic.twitter.com/xGTw1ZEz9s
Rachel Baxendale 1.40pm: Sex ban a ‘smokescreen’
More from Bill Shorten’s media conference this morning in which he called on Malcolm Turnbull to show “courage” and sack Barnaby Joyce, declaring the rift between the Prime Minister and his deputy a “full-blown political crisis”.
Under the Coalition agreement, only the National Party can sack their leader, but Mr Shorten said Mr Turnbull must dismiss Mr Joyce from his cabinet.
Making a display of Labor leadership unity alongside his deputy Tanya Plibersek in Melbourne, Mr Shorten said Australians wanted their politicians to serve them.
“Tanya and I entered politics to serve the people, get Australians good jobs, a great education for kids, so sick Australians can have quality affordable healthcare,” he said.
“This government is in crisis. It is a full-blown political crisis. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are at war with each other. This crisis cannot be allowed to continue.
“Malcolm Turnbull must sack his Deputy Prime Minister from the cabinet. The time has well past four Malcolm Turnbull to show he has the courage to sack is Deputy Prime Minister.
“If Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t have the courage to sack Barnaby Joyce, he doesn’t have the courage to be Prime Minister of Australia.”
Ministers’ sex ban
Asked for his view on Mr Turnbull’s ban on ministers having sex with staff, and whether he had ever stopped Labor MPs from having relationships with their staff, Mr Shorten accused Mr Turnbull of “shooting from the hip”.
“This particular proposal is a complete smokescreen,” Mr Shorten said.
“(Mr Turnbull) has now confirmed this morning that he was aware of Mr Joyce’s conduct months ago but has only chosen to act on it yesterday.
“We will consider whatever he has to put forward but his own government members have not even seen it. A collection of handwritten notes does not make a strong policy.”
Mr Shorten was also asked whether he was aware of any Labor MPs having affairs with staff.
“The short answer is no, but the longer issue is this: you’ve got a Deputy Prime Minister and it’s never been his private life which we have been commenting about, it’s the use of his office, it’s the use of public privilege for private gain. It’s the awarding of better paid jobs.”
“By the way, you have to take with a very big grain of salt Mr Turnbull’s outrage yesterday. He has known for months. What has Malcolm Turnbull done in previous months? He said that Mr Joyce had his confidence.
“Mr Turnbull is only acting to save his own skin.”
A little tweak on @australian's Page of Error pic.twitter.com/C4oX9c1CwK
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) February 16, 2018
1.15pm: Chester: a rough week
Nationals MP Darren Chester says it’s been “a rough week” for his party, but the fight between Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce isn’t the end of the Coalition.
Mr Chester refused to pick a side in the war of words between the Prime Minister and his deputy, after Mr Turnbull accused Mr Joyce of a “shocking error of judgment” over an affair with his staffer.
“We are working across party lines. I’m very confident we can continue to deliver good government here in Australia,” Mr Chester told reporters.
Mr Chester was dumped from cabinet in December in a reshuffle. At the time Mr Joyce rejected claims Mr Chester’s demotion was “payback” after endorsing Victorian colleague Bridget McKenzie in the deputy leader ballot, against Mr Joyce’s choice of Queenslander Matthew Canavan.
- with AAP
1pm: Full-blown political crisis: Shorten
Bill Shorten says the government is in a “full-blown political crisis” and has demanded Malcolm Turnbull sack Barnaby Joyce from his cabinet.
“If Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t have the courage to sack Barnaby Joyce then Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t have the courage to be prime minister of Australia,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“If Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t sack Barnaby Joyce today this government is over.”
The Labor leader said the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister “are now at war with each other”.
“Quite frankly, the way these two men are behaving, neither of them are fit for the high office they currently hold.
“Yesterday Mr Turnbull declared war on Mr Joyce, today Mr Joyce declared war on Mr Turnbull.”
Flanked by deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek, Mr Shorten said: “Australians have every reason to be angry and frustrated when the two most senior Australian leaders are not focused other than anything other than their own jobs.”
more to come...
Opposition Leader @billshortenmp: If I have the honour of serving as Prime Minister, with @tanya_plibersek as my Deputy, we will bring an end to the political soap opera.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 16, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/iTlxFLJ6uc #newsday pic.twitter.com/nRWfgQerGM
Peter van Onselen 12.55pm Joyce now the ultimate liability
COMMENT
Nationals MPs and senators need to wake up to the fact Joyce is playing a game of divide and conquer – hoping to drive a wedge between Turnbull and the Nationals, to save himself, and be damned what the consequences may be when doing so.
It is another selfish act by a one-time asset to the Nationals and the Coalition who has become a dead weight. Joyce is now the ultimate liability, and rather than walking into the yonder with his tail between his legs he’s fighting to save his job.
It’s the ultimate act of entitlement by a politician who once upon a time came across as the antithesis of such a man.
Read Peter van Onselen’s opinion piece in full here
Dennis Shanahan 12.45pm: Worst result for Coalition, PM and Joyce
COMMENT
Barnaby Joyce’s rejection of Malcolm Turnbull’s “inept and unnecessary” intervention into the National Party’s leadership is the worst possible result for the government, the Coalition, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister himself.
Turnbull’s decision to attempt to blast Joyce out of the Nationals leadership and his cabinet has backfired badly with Joyce scorning his criticisms and calling on the strength of the clan loyalty that is a tradition in the 85-year old country party.
Country MPs from all parties can’t abide media executions and one sacked minister who read about his removal in the media famously declared that “in the bush we shoot our own dogs”.
Read Dennis Shanahan’s opinion piece in full here
Rachel Baxendale 12.25pm: Sort out the differences man-to-man: Andrews
Liberal backbencher Kevin Andrews has warned that Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce are in danger of allowing the Labor Party to sweep into office at the next election, unless Mr Turnbull delays his trip to the US, sits down with Mr Joyce, and sorts out their differences.
The conservative and ally of former prime minister Tony Abbott also hit out at the Prime Minister’s ban on sex between ministers and their staff, saying the new dictum was “misplaced”, “ridiculous”, “haphazard”, and impossible to police.
Mr Andrews called for Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce to sort out their differences for the good of the Coalition and good government.
“The vision of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia publicly taking shots at each other in press conferences is totally unhelpful,” he told Sky News.
“Most Australians expect our leaders to be able to sit down on an issue like this in a man to man fashion and sort our whatever the differences there are there, and they should be sorted out privately, and can I say Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce should be doing that this weekend.
“Mr Turnbull should not be going to America until this has been sorted out, and Mr Joyce should be wherever he’s needed to be to sit down and have that conversation with Mr Turnbull, otherwise this circus is just going to continue, and the ability of the government to project the message which we should be projecting about growth in the economy, about 400,000 new jobs, about the total fraudulent politics of Mr Shorten and the opposition that just gets totally disguised, gets totally lost while this circus continues.”
Mr Andrews said Mr Joyce’s future as the Deputy Prime Minister was a matter for him and the National Party.
“They are a separate party, but what I believe is two things: one is stop all this commentary in public, it’s not helpful at all, and please gentlemen, sit down together and sort this out.
“That’s what the Australian people would want to see, it’s certainly what National and Liberal Party members want, and it’s what our supporters want as well.
“If we don’t do this, then what we’ll find in a few months’ time or a year’s time that Labor will sweep into office because we haven’t been able to talk about the good things that we’re doing.
“If our leadership can’t do that at this stage, well then we should be thinking about who’s the leadership of our respective parties.”
Asked whether the issue was a leadership test for Mr Turnbull, Mr Andrews simply repeated that the pair must meet and sort out the issue.
“I’m just saying quite simply that the two most senior people in politics in Australia, who are in a coalition together, must be able to sit down and sort out an issue like this, and I call upon all my senior colleagues to make sure that this happens sooner rather than later.,” he said.
“If that can’t be done, well then we are failing the people of Australia in the high office that these people have been given, and in the responsibility that we have to govern Australia for the welfare and the prosperity of the people of this country.”
Mr Andrews hit out at Mr Turnbull’s “misplaced” ban on ministers having sex with their staff.
“I recall a wise old law professor saying that you can’t legislate for making people act in an honourable way, in other words, you can’t legislate for virtuous behaviour such as integrity or loyalty, so I think the idea is actually quite misplaced, but beyond that the application is haphazard,” Mr Andrews said.
“A minister shouldn’t have sexual relations with a staff member but can have it with another member of parliament, another minister or staff in another office. It’s quite haphazard, and then thirdly, how the hell do you police it?
“I mean to me this is quite ridiculous. Prime ministers in the past have never needed a code in order to reshuffle their ministry if they thought someone was acting in an inappropriate way, so I think this is misplaced.”
Primrose Riordan 11.35am: Joyce: PM’s comments inept
Barnaby Joyce has attacked Malcolm Turnbull at a dramatic press conference and suggested the Liberal leader is improperly intervening in the leadership of the National Party.
“(In regards to the) comments by the Prime Minister yesterday at his press conference, with regards to that, I have to say that, in many instances, they caused further harm,” he said.
“I believe they were in many instances inept and most definitely in many instances unnecessary.”
He added: “All it does is reinvest in the hurt that’s being felt by other people. All that is once more going to do is pull the scab off.”
An angry Mr Joyce suggested Mr Turnbull should not be intervening in National Party processes.
“It regards to the National Party, there is nothing that we dislike more than implied intervention into the party processes of the National Party. We are an independent political unit,” he said.
Mr Turnbull yesterday called on his deputy to “consider his own position” and setting up a damaging showdown between the Liberals and Nationals after declaring an immediate ban on sex between ministers and staffers.
In a scathing assessment of Mr Joyce’s character following his affair with former staffer Vikki Campion, the Prime Minister described his actions as “appalling” and a “shocking error of judgment”.
.@Barnaby_Joyce: @TurnbullMalcolm's comments yesterday caused further harm and were in many instances inept and unnecessary. It was already public knowledge. https://t.co/fbuABRGS8G pic.twitter.com/xxvxBi59ln
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 16, 2018
11.15am: Joyce “considering his position”
Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed Barnaby Joyce is “considering his position,” as the Deputy Prime Minister announces he will hold a news conference at 11.30am.
“Barnaby has been considering his position and I do not think there is any question about that but I have not called on him to resign, I have not asked him to resign,” Mr Turnbull said in Tasmania where he is campaigning with Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgeman.
“He has to form his view on his circumstances, he has a lot to reflect on given what has happened, and I say, again, he has made some big errors of judgement and he acknowledges that.”
Prime Minister @TurnbullMalcolm: @Barnaby_Joyce did not ever come to me to alert me to his affair.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) February 16, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/fbuABRGS8G #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/eHxF7XRXwg
Mr Turnbull also said Mr Joyce had not told him directly he was having an affair with his staffer Vikki Campion but he could not remember when he first heard rumours of the circumstances.
“There was actually a front-page article in The Daily Telegraph.”
“Prior to that, around the time of the by-election, referring to that...I’m not going to go into the private discussions between me and Barnaby Joyce other than what I have said.”
“But he did not come into my office and say, I am having an affair with this woman. He did not make a statement of that kind.”
Mr Turnbull also said he did not know what Mr Joyce would say at the upcoming press conference.
Before the Barnaby presser at 11.30, here's the shotgun and the back paddock https://t.co/7YoKlho0EH
— James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) February 16, 2018
‘Define sexual relations’
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has said there could be a further tightening of the new ban on ministers having sex with their staff but has declined to further define what exactly “sexual relations” constitutes.
“The whole idea of sexual relations, it’s a vague notion; how do you define what’s what?” Sky News’ Kieran Gilbert asked.
“I’m not going to get into the weeds of all of this,” Senator Cormann replied.
“I think that people know what’s what. I think that people know what conduct is inappropriate and the code now formally includes provisions to that effect.”
In announcing the ban yesterday, to be articulated in the Ministerial Code of Conduct, Malcolm Turnbull flagged future changes to the document.
“These will not be the last ones I will make. I will be working through this rather old document and making sure that it speaks clearly about the values of respect in workplaces, the values of integrity that Australians expect us to have,” the Prime Minister said.
Asked how the code will address the forced resignation of junior staff who have affairs with ministers in order to comply with the code, Senator Cormann said there could be further changes.
“As the PM has said, there will be some further consideration as to what further changes may or may not be necessary and that is something that will play out over the next few weeks,” he said.
Senator Cormann’s comments came amid growing calls for Barnaby Joyce to resign in the wake of his affair with his one-time media adviser Vikki Campion.
Opposition infrastructure spokesman Anthony Albanese said Mr Joyce should step down immediately, and labelled Mr Turnbull’s handling of the situation as “weak”.
“The ministerial code of conduct is now in shreds, the fact is it’s been ignored by Barnaby Joyce,” he told Channel 9 this morning. “Next week Barnaby Joyce goes on leave, he should just leave.”
Mr Joyce’s bitter political foe Tony Windsor also weighed into the debate this morning, declaring the Nationals should have asked Mr Joyce to step down earlier in the week in order to preserve their “family values” brand.
Mr Windsor stirred controversy during the New England by-election by posting tweets alluding to allegations about Mr Joyce including allegations of poor behaviour after a rural women’s event in 2011.
Speaking to the ABC’s Fran Kelly this morning, Mr Windsor denied his actions were motivated by his deep personal conflict with Mr Joyce.
“Not at all... if those women who were involved in various incidents with various players want to come out and make their statements they can. I’m not going to name those people,” he said.
“It’s up to the women... I wouldn’t be surprised particularly given the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday there are certain players [who] are going to expose poor behaviour.”
Mr Windsor said the Nationals should have stepped in earlier in the week.
“This week has shown very poor judgment by Mr Joyce. It was a shocking week. I think the Prime Minister having to do what he did yesterday afternoon was sheer frustration. There’s no way you can police something like the Prime Minister announced yesterday.”
Nationals backbencher George Christensen spoke out against the sex ban, labelling it “bonkers”.
“The bonk ban is bonkers! And it shows that the whole attack on Barnaby Joyce is driven by one thing: sex,” he said on Facebook.
Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne defended Mr Turnbull’s decision to implement the sex ban in response to the news of Mr Joyce’s extramarital affair becoming public.
“The private became the public ...[Mr Turnbull has] shown the leadership that is required as Prime Minister,” he told Channel 9’s Today show.
Mr Pyne then called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to apply the same rules to his front bench.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said the ban on ministers having sex with their staff was a distraction from questions of conflict of interest that Mr Joyce should be answering.
Ms Plibersek said there was no point adding new provisions when the existing code was not being enforced.
“The Prime Minister is not even prepared to enforce the existing code of conduct,” she told the ABC.
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