Barnaby Joyce has become the Nationals’ loaded dog

The Barnaby Joyce saga now has a life of its own — he’s become like the loaded dog of Henry Lawson fame.

Barnaby Joyce is causing himself and his colleagues harm. Picture: AAP.

The Barnaby Joyce saga now has a life of its own — he’s become like the loaded dog of Henry Lawson fame.

In the 1901 short story a retriever dog described as “an overgrown pup ... a big foolish, four-footed mate” picks up a stick of dynamite and accidentally runs it through a camp fire igniting it. His owners run for cover but the dog thinks it’s a game and playfully chases them up hill and down dale with the dynamite in his mouth.

The difference, perhaps, between the Lawson story and the Joyce saga is that the dog named Tommy eventually offloads the dynamite to other dogs who go on to blow themselves up. Tommy and his owners safely wander off into the sunset unharmed.

Henry Lawson's loaded dog. Picture: Supplied.

Joyce’s problem, in contrast, is causing him and his colleagues harm. The problem for the deputy Prime Minister is that the issue is no longer just about whether politicians’ private lives are public business. It’s no longer a debate about the editorial judgment of publishing something harmful to the families of the political class. It’s not even just about the hypocrisy of a family values conservative being caught out as Joyce has been, or the questionable issue of the fiduciary relationship a boss and a staffer might have.

It’s now about entitlements, political donations and question marks over whether the DPM’s burgeoning new relationship resulted in misuses on either front. Labor has signalled its intent to ask more questions, and you can bet journalists will keep digging, using Freedom of Information to uncover what they can.

No amount of barely veiled threats from deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop — referring to people in glass houses — can stuff this genie back in its bottle.

The point is this story now has a life of its own, and that’s even if new events are not uncovered going forward.

Throw in the sharp contrast between the responses coming from the government — it’s a private matter so leave us alone — and the approach taken in corporate Australia (the AFL sacking of executives who engaged in relationships with subordinates for example) and Canberra once more looks like it’s trailing higher standards being applied elsewhere.

All of the above has happened right at a time when the government looked like it was building momentum to start the new year, again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

And the biggest risk? That how the government handles this saga from here adds to internal tensions and engulfs the Prime Minister in the muck. By that I mean what he knew, and what he did or didn’t approve when the staffing allocations were determined.

You can bet Labor wants more than the scalp of Barnaby Joyce. It wants to wound Malcolm Turnbull and kill off any momentum he might be able to muster. The loaded dog may have achieved that outcome already.

Peter van Onselen is a professor of politics and foundation chair of Journalism at the University of Western Australia