Barnaby Joyce affair: Wife Natalie wants Nats leader to keep his job

Natalie Joyce does not want her husband unseated as Deputy PM or Nationals leader as a defiant Barnaby declared he’s not going anywhere.

Michael McCormack — the Veterans’ Affairs Minister touted as most likely to succeed Barnaby Joyce — has fuelled leadership speculation. Picture: Keri Megelus

Natalie Joyce does not want her husband unseated as Deputy Prime Minister or Nationals leader as a defiant Barnaby declared he will not be blasted out of office.

Mrs Joyce’s close friends say she has been worried that some in the Nationals party room are using the scandal to unseat Mr Joyce and claim the leadership, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reports. This is why she has been hesitant to agree to a major media interview.

Mr Joyce has been in crisis since it was revealed he had become embroiled in an affair with former staffer Vikki Campion and is expecting a child with her in April.

Mrs Joyce made her first public appearance at the weekend, attending a birthday party cruise on Sydney Harbour for a Nationals and Liberal Party donor, Kirsty Berger.

Nationals president Larry Anthony convened an emergency meeting of senior party ­officials yesterday to discuss the widening crisis, following pleas by former deputy prime minister John Anderson for MPs to “exercise their responsibility” and resolve the issue by next week.

The phone hook-up included Nationals party officials from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia and canvassed the political fallout over Mr Joyce’s affair with Ms Campion, which has ­imperilled his leadership and ­escalated calls for his resignation.

The Australian understands the meeting was brief and there was no final decision made about Mr Joyce’s future. The talks specifically discussed yesterday’s Newspoll, which showed that 65 per cent of Australians wanted the Nationals leader to resign to the backbench or leave parliament altogether.

Natalie Joyce with political lobbyist Michael Kauter, right, and his partner, David Gracey on the birthday cruise. Picture: Facebook

In an interview with Fairfax Media today, Mr Joyce played down the meeting, claimed he was the victim of a witch-hunt and declared “I’m not going anywhere’’.

“I’e been in heaps of fights in my political life, this is another one, in any person’s political career you aren’t created by the times in your favour, you’re tempered by the times of adversity. That’s how politics works — you rise to deal with it,” he told Fairfax.

“I am humbled by the support in my electorate and in the community. People are starting to see this as a witch hunt. I’m not going anywhere, I never would.

“People know enough about me to know that I’m hardly one to run away from a fight.”

Fairfax also reports allies of Mr Joyce believe the Prime Minister’s office is actively working with journalists to leak against and destabilise Mr Joyce to force him out.

The Government leader in the Senate Mathias Cormann said he was “not going to become a commentator”, when asked what he made of Mr Joyce’s claim that he has become the subject of a “witch-hunt”.

Senator Cormann said the only contact he had had with Mr Joyce since being asked to replace him as acting prime minister when Malcolm Turnbull heads to the US tomorrow had been leaving a voicemail.

“Obviously the matters that were on the front pages of newspapers last week by and large were deeply personal matters,” Senator Cormann said.

“I feel for Barnaby, I feel for his family and kids and I feel for his partner, for that matter.

“Obviously it would have been a very difficult week for them. It was a distraction for the government, I mean that’s a matter of fact, but moving forward our focus is on progressing our plan for more jobs and higher wages.”

Asked whether he had spoken to Mr Joyce, Senator Cormann said he had left a voicemail.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk, no. I left a message for him over the last few days,” Senator Cormann said.

“Barnaby’s had a difficult week, there’s no two ways about it. It would have been very tough on him, as it would have been tough on his family and on his partner for that matter, and it’s important no doubt for him and his family, but it’s of course also important for the government for us to get to the other side of this.”

Michael McCormack — the Veterans’ Affairs Minister touted as most likely to succeed Mr Joyce — fuelled leadership speculation further after repeatedly ­refusing to support the Deputy Prime Minister. He also refused to rule out a challenge at next Monday’s party room meeting ­before reluctantly signalling his personal support.

“There is no challenge at the moment,” Mr McCormack told Sky News.

“Of course, there’s been talk about what may or may not happen ... but at the moment Barnaby Joyce is the leader of the National party. If I knew what was going to happen this week, I’d be down at the local racetrack betting on the horses I knew were going to come home.”

Senior Nationals sources said Mr Joyce commanded the support of a key bloc of MPs, including Matthew Canavan, David Littleproud, Nigel Scullion, Bridget McKenzie, George Christensen, Damian Drum and Llew O’Brien.

Speaking in PyeongChang at the Winter Olympics yesterday, Ms McKenzie lent her support to Mr Joyce, saying he “delivers for regional and rural Australia like nobody else”.

“I support our leader,” Ms McKenzie, the Sport Minister, said. “This is a party that’s been delivering for the regions for 100 years.

“I have been unequivocal in my comments around Barnaby and his leadership and the National party’s role in Australian politics, so that’s where it stands.”

GRAPHIC: Edited extract of McCormack’s Sky News interview

MPs understood to be testing the moods in their electorates about the Joyce affair include Darren Chester, Keith Pitt, ­Andrew Broad, Michael McCormack, Ken O’Dowd, Barry ­O’Sullivan and Luke Hartsuyker. Other MPs who have provided qualified support for Mr Joyce include John Williams and Michelle Landry.

Mr Anderson, who served as deputy prime minister to John Howard between 1999 and 2005, appealed to Mr Joyce to use his time on leave over the next week to think through his personal situation “very carefully”, including his responsibilities to the government, his family and unborn son.

“I would encourage him, while he is on leave, to clear his head and I say that as a friend who was his campaign chairman, to clear his head and to think this through very carefully indeed,” Mr Anderson told The Australian.

“He has enormous responsibilities to his own family including his unborn son as well his party and the nation.”

Former deputy PM and Nationals leader John Anderson. Picture: Chris Pavlich

The intervention from Mr ­Anderson was his most direct ­involvement since Mr Joyce’s ­affair was made public. While not calling on Mr Joyce to resign, Mr Anderson advised members of the Nat­ionals party room they could not afford to abrogate their ­responsibility to their constituents and the government. He urged Nationals MPs to act swiftly to rectify the situation or risk having it “taken out of their hands”, but said they would have to justify their decision to the ­public.

“The individual senators and members of the party room must accept the responsibility to ensure the party and parliament function responsibly as well, so they have to ensure, in so far as it depends on them, that they are in a position by the time parliament goes back to be able to say the government can and will be able to function properly,” Mr Anderson said.

“That is their responsibility. If they don’t exercise it — as I said last week and reiterate again — it will be taken out of their hands. It’s already bad enough. The party must exercise its responsibility in terms of delivering government.”

Barnaby Joyce and his wife Natalie at last year’s Midwinter Ball. Picture: Ray Strange

The crisis over Mr Joyce’s personal life last week triggered public hostilities between the Nationals leader and Malcolm Turnbull after the Prime Minister condemned the ­affair as a “shocking error of judgment” that had “appalled everyone” when he unveiled his sex ban between ministers and their staff on Thursday.

Mr Turnbull sidestepped questions about Mr Joyce’s future, saying he was uncertain whether the Deputy Prime Minister still commanded the support of his colleagues, ­and it was up to the Nat­ionals party room to choose its leader. “A person’s leadership of a political party is really determined, comes to an end — leaving aside death or misadventure — in two ways: either the person resigns or their party room decides they want someone else to be the leader,” he told 3AW radio.

He said he had buried the hatchet with Mr Joyce during their Saturday meeting in Sydney and the pair could continue to work well together. “We’ve put whatever tensions there were behind us,” he told 3AW.

The Prime Minister revealed Mr Joyce had not told him of his relationship with Ms Campion, and declined to say whether he had asked the Nationals leader about the rumours of an affair.

Mr Joyce’s former chief-of-staff and now Queensland MP for the seat of Wright, Scott Buchholz, said he believed the Nat­ionals leader could hold on to his job. “Not that I get to have my say within the Nationals party ranks, however if I was a betting man, I would suggest Barnaby at a trot would outperform politically any challenger at full gallop,” Mr Buchholz said.

Bill Shorten escalated his attack on Mr Turnbull, saying he was “too weak” to sack the Nationals leader for what was a breach of ministerial standards. “I didn’t need a poll to tell me that Barnaby should go,” he said.

Mr Joyce, who has taken a week’s leave, declined to respond to the comments from Mr ­McCormack.

Additional reporting: Jacquelin Magnay