Barnaby quits to ease the scandal
DEPARTING Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce again has denied sexually harassing a woman in 2011 but says the latest allegations helped him decide to quit..
Mr Joyce said he hoped his resignation from the party’s leadership would be a circuitbreaker for the Turnbull Government after 16 days of scandal.
The latest twist in the saga surrounding the Deputy Prime Minister is an allegation of sexual harassment involving a West Australian woman in 2011 that will be referred to police and is the subject of an internal investigation by the Nationals.
Mr Joyce, who has been on personal leave this week with his new partner and former staffer Vikki Campion, will officially quit as Nationals leader on Monday and go to the back bench.
“It’s incredibly important that there be a circuit-breaker, not just for the parliament but more importantly a circuitbreaker for Vikki, for my unborn child, my daughters and for Nat (Mr Joyce’s wife),” he told reporters in Armidale yesterday.
“This has got to stop.” The NSW MP has faced questions regarding jobs given to Ms Campion and parliamentary expense use.
“Over the last half a month, there has been a litany of allegations. I don’t believe any of them have been sustained,” Mr Joyce said.
“(But) to give these people in the weatherboard and iron, in those regional and small towns, the best opportunity, this current cacophony of issues has to be put aside.”
Mr Joyce denied the sexual harassment allegation but said it was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.
On Wednesday, Mr Joyce told Fairfax Media he would ride out the storm but two days later he said it was “not hard at all” to decide to step down.
Mr Joyce had not directly told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull he was resigning but he said he spoke to Mathias Cormann, who is Acting PM while Mr Turnbull is overseas.