PM denies Barnaby Joyce threatened to work with Tony Abbott

Malcolm Turnbull’s office has denied a report that Barnaby Joyce threatened to work with Tony Abbott to undermine the Prime Minister’s leadership.

Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion at Canberra airport. Picture: Kym Smith.

Malcolm Turnbull’s office has denied a report that Barnaby Joyce threatened to work with Tony Abbott to undermine the Prime Minister’s leadership, after coming under pressure from Mr Turnbull to consider his position.

Sky News reported today that the former Nationals leader made the threat on the day of the Prime Minister’s “sex ban” announcement, when Mr Turnbull urged Mr Joyce to consider his position.

Mr Joyce — under pressure over his relationship with pregnant staffer Vikki Campion — reportedly told Mr Turnbull: “I’m sure if we had the time, Tony (Abbott) and I could get the numbers.”

But Mr Turnbull’s spokesman “vehemently” denied the threat was made, adding that Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce dined together at parliament house on the Monday after Mr Joyce’s resignation.

Mr Joyce stood down as Nationals leader on February 23 — eight days after Mr Turnbull announced his ban on ministers sleeping with their staffers.

The final straw was a sexual harassment allegation by a Western Australian woman.

Michael McCormack was elected by colleagues as Nationals Leader on February 26.

That’s nobody’s business: Joyce

Barnaby Joyce has refused to answer questions about his personal life, a day after he reignited discussion of his relationship with former media adviser Vikki Campion by describing the paternity of the child she is expecting in April as a “grey area”.

The former deputy prime minister made the revelations in an interview with Fairfax Media published yesterday.

As The Australian reports today, Mr Joyce told Nationals officials three months ago he did not believe he was the father because he was travelling overseas at the suspected time of conception.

Today, he cut short a press conference in his northern NSW electorate of New England, ostensibly convened to discuss local infrastructure projects.

“One thing I am going to say is anything that is personal in nature is nobody else’s business but my and Vikki Campion’s,” Mr Joyce said.

“We are not here to be part of some ongoing litany of discussion about this.

“It is no one else’s business, it is personal and that is the last thing I am talking about.”

‘What a bloody fool he is!’

Earlier, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Mr Joyce may have been trying to sabotage the government when he spoke out about uncertainty over the paternity of Ms Campion’s child.

“What a bloody fool he is!” Senator Hanson told the Seven Network.

“I can’t believe this! It is also the stress on his wife. His poor wife and kids, I cannot leave this! Bloody fool! I wish he would shut up and go away.

“He has destroyed his life as far as I am concerned. He had a great future in politics, he just destroyed it.

“I wonder if he has it in for the National Party now and his attitude is that he doesn’t care.

“It is causing them more and more damage all the time.”

Asked whether he was trying to bring the Coalition with him on his way down, Senator Hanson said: “It looks like that, it really does.”

“He knows the Prime Minister’s down in the polls, so with the Liberal Party, he is not helping the National Party mates of his.

Senator Hanson suggested Mr Joyce may also be angry with the Coalition over their handling of sexual harassment allegations against him, after the name of his accuser was made public.

“I would say Barnaby is pretty angry in every direction, particularly with the National Party,” she said.

Today’s Newspoll shows Malcolm Turnbull’s lead over Bill Shorten as the preferred prime minister has evaporated, with the leaders now 37-35 following the fallout from the Joyce crisis.

Fellow crossbench senator Derryn Hinch said people were continuing to talk about Mr Joyce’s private life because he had “thrown his partner under the bus”.

“It’s a shocker. Less information, please!” Senator Hinch told the Seven Network.

“I’m starting to wonder if she has agreed to this as well. Is she a social media expert? They have handled this badly.

“Turnbull overnight in the opinion poll, he is only two points ahead of Bill Shorten!”

Senator Hinch said Employment Minister Michaelia Cash’s comments during a Senate Estimates hearing last week referencing “rumours” about women in Mr Shorten’s office had not helped the government’s standing in the polls.

“She made a slur about every female member of Bill Shorten staff. (Mr Turnbull) defended her and went along with the rubbish about (Senator Doug) Cameron bullying her,” Senator Hinch said.

“She did that deliberately and it was a terrible thing to say.”

‘I don’t work on the set of Days of Our Lives’

Nationals MP Keith Pitt, who will today be sworn in as assistant minister to new Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack after three months on the backbench, said it had obviously been a “messy” start to the year for his party.

Nationals MP Keith Pitt. Picture; AAP.

“We continue to be focused on what’s important. I’ve got to tell you no one in my electorate is coming to me talking about this stuff. They’re really not interested,” Mr Pitt told Sky News.

“I don’t work on the set of Days of Our Lives.

“This is a serious building where serious decisions are made. We continue to be focused on that, and for me it’s about jobs, it’s about driving the economy, it’s about growth, particularly in regional areas, and the delivery of infrastructure.”

Governor-General Peter Cosgrove will swear Mr Pitt and his Nationals colleagues Darren Chester and Mark Coulton into their new ministerial roles at a ceremony at Government House today, following a reshuffle triggered by Mr Joyce’s resignation.

Mr Chester will become veterans affairs minister, having been dropped as infrastructure minister when Mr Joyce took the portfolio for himself in December.

Mr Coulton also joins the frontbench as assistant trade and tourism minister.

Fellow Nationals MPs Damian Drum and Luke Hartsukyer return to the government’s backbenches.

“As I’ve said many times while it’s an opportunity for me, it is a bit of a Nutella sandwich for others and I certainly feel for Damian Drum and Luke Hartsuyker, who have worked hard for quite some time,” Mr Pitt said.

Government ‘underestimates’ Bill Shorten

Labor frontbencher Michelle Rowland said today’s Newspoll highlighted the fact that the government continued to underestimate Mr Shorten.

“They throw everything at him in Question Time, rather than talking about not only a positive vision for Australia but how they’re going to achieve it, they spend all their time focusing on our leader,” Ms Rowland told Sky News.

“If they spent more time focusing on the Australian people, then my suggestion is that they would see much better results.

“But this is going to be a difficult year. There is no doubting that from the opposition’s perspective.

“We are going into an election year, and it’s one in which we are finetuning, formulating and consulting on a suite of policies to take to the next election.

“We want to present to the Australian people a set of visions, a set of values, including equality of opportunity in everything from health and education to access to broadband, and they are things that we will be prosecuting right up until the next election date, and that’s what we’re totally focused on.”

Ms Rowland said it was “pleasing” that the preferred prime minister gap between Mr Shorten and Mr Turnbull had subsided.

“I’ll also make the point that as I go around Australia, people are very disappointed with Malcolm Turnbull.

“He promised so much and has delivered so little. He promised to be someone of substance and he’s someone of slogans, so I think that more that Labor and the more that our leader Bill Shorten focuses on what we have to do, I believe that we’ll be very competitive at the next election, but it’s a long road and there’s no shirking that.”