Former Australian deputy PM criticised for paid interview on love affair

 

Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stands next to Barnaby Joyce, Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, during an official signing ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia March 24, 2017. Picture taken March 24, 2017. REUTERS/David Gray

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's scandal-hit former deputy prime minister was widely criticised on Tuesday for agreeing to a paid tell-all television interview about an extramarital affair, threatening further disharmony in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government.

 

The move is unusual for an elected official - Barnaby Joyce is now a backbencher in the Liberal-National coalition government - and prompted calls from his own party for a ban on payments for media appearances by serving politicians.

 

The payment, which media said was A$150,000 (£85,226), provoked critical comment on social media and again raised the hackles of Turnbull, who this year lambasted Joyce's "shocking error of judgement over the affair with his media adviser.

 

"It has been very widely criticised," Turnbull told Tasmanian radio station LAFM, speaking of the interview payment. "It is certainly not a course of action I would have encouraged him to take, I will put it that way."

 

Joyce, perhaps best known for once threatening to kill U.S. movie star Johnny Depp's dogs over a quarantine violation, had requested the media respect his privacy when his affair with staff member Vikki Campion was made public.

 

He resigned as leader of the Nationals, the junior coalition partner, in February after weeks of pressure. Joyce and Campion now live together and recently had a child, a son whom Joyce said would be the beneficiary of the interview payment.

 

Joyce added that Campion, as a private citizen, had a right to make money from an already intrusive situation.

 

"In the last fortnight we've had drones over our house, we've had paparazzi waiting for us," Joyce told reporters in Canberra. "We tried just burning this out and that didn't work."

 

As Joyce continues to enjoy influence within the conservative wing of the coalition government, political analysts said Turnbull can ill afford any split, with a federal election less than a year away.

 

"The government cannot be seen to fighting publicly," said Haydon Manning of Flinders University in South Australia. "Disunity is death, as they say in Australian politics."

 

Backbench lawmakers are permitted to accept money for media engagements, but Australian lawmakers have traditionally shunned financial offers.

 

(Reporting by Colin Packham; editing by Jane Wardell and Clarence Fernandez)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-30

Surely, the Australian government and the Australian people  have more important things to worry about?

Edited May 29, 20188 yr by newatthis
grammar

12 minutes ago, newatthis said:

Surely, the Australian government and the Australian people  have more important things to worry about?

Well..it's kinda quiet down here and Barnaby is such a muppet.

 

I do agree tho'-life in Ramsay St-could be a tad more interesting and exciting then Barnaby and his akubra hat.

1 hour ago, newatthis said:

Surely, the Australian government and the Australian people  have more important things to worry about?

I have a partial soft spot for the guy on certain issues, but he also has the capacity to be an absolute drongo. 

 

Most Aussie politics are pretty good at keeping their private lives and dirty laundy out of the public eye.

 

He bought it on himself, in the most public way. That’s why we are hearing about it. 

Didn´t it stand former? Means he is as free as anybody else to get paid for private interviews, right?

Like telling a gold miner selling his company in Klondike, that he can´t dive for gold in Bering Sea.

6 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Didn´t it stand former? Means he is as free as anybody else to get paid for private interviews, right?

Like telling a gold miner selling his company in Klondike, that he can´t dive for gold in Bering Sea.

The guy is a serving politician and it was his de-facto who was paid for the interview; even so payment comes across as tacky. Now the guy is taking a month's stress leave, all rather pathetic for a so called 'leader'.

The guy is a serving politician and it was his de-facto who was paid for the interview; even so payment comes across as tacky. Now the guy is taking a month's stress leave, all rather pathetic for a so called 'leader'.

“Barnyard” isn’t a a leader! In fact he never really was. A previous Turnbull sidekick


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36 minutes ago, simple1 said:

The guy is a serving politician and it was his de-facto who was paid for the interview; even so payment comes across as tacky. Now the guy is taking a month's stress leave, all rather pathetic for a so called 'leader'.

Right, but appearently not pathetic enough to miss the non existing news value.

35 minutes ago, car720 said:

Good on him though.  Maybe stupid for being honest but maybe we could use a bit more honesty.

My advice to him:  Get out of the cesspool mate and go back to the simple farm life.

What I liked about him was he never answered questions like politicians do. 

 

What got got him into trouble was that that he doesn’t answer questions like politicians do. 

 

I couldn’t have cared less if he bonked half of Tamworth. But his actions and words made it a public thing - especially all the shuffling of his partner between the government jobs. 

 

He’s clearly one of these people who when you sarcastically advise them to ‘keep digging’, he takes your advice literally. 

Les Patterson the Culture Attache of Australia lives! 

The bloke was a small town bookkeeper who carried on as if he was Clancy of the Overflow when he went to Canberra. He transferred a department to Tamworth, his electorate, causing the loss of a lot of experienced staff who chose not to go. He appealed for privacy About the affair and the love child, and then sells the story. MPs should not accept money for talking to the public.