Minister created high- paid job for Joyce’s girlfriend Canavan lends hand
RESOURCES Minister Matt Canavan created a new highsalary job for Barnaby Joyce’s girlfriend, with the affair creating serious dysfunction in the Deputy Prime Minister’s office.
Vikki Campion was given a new role as a senior adviser in Senator Canavan’s office working on his social and digital media, even as others within the party became increasingly concerned.
Senator Canavan, who is a close ally of Mr Joyce, did not have a full- time staff member in this role prior to Ms Campion’s appointment.
Coalition sources said Mr Joyce’s former chief- of- staff Diana Hallam was close with Mr Joyce’s wife Natalie and ultimately quit her job over Mr Joyce’s refusal to deal with the inappropriate relationship and the dysfunction it had caused inside the office.
It is understood Mr Joyce’s senior Nationals colleagues became aware in February last year of the affair with Ms Campion, his former media adviser.
A spokeswoman for Mr Canavan declined to comment on “employment matters relating to any staff member”, and Ms Campion subsequently moved to the office of chief Nationals whip Damian Drum, remaining employed until the pre- Christmas reshuffle when she received a severance package after Mr Drum was promoted.
Sources suggested Ms Campion may have earned up to $ 260,000 as a senior adviser, but Mr Canavan’s office declined to comment.
Government MPs claim Mr Joyce’s personal situation was behind the “vindictive” ministerial reshuffle that saw colleagues who he believed had been gossiping about his affair dumped or overlooked, strain- ing his relationship with the Prime Minister’s office.
The revelation of the affair moved crossbench MPs yesterday to contemplate following the US House of Representatives in explicitly prohibiting relationships between members and “any employees of the House that works under ( their supervision)”.
“There is a belief the Parliament is behind community expectations and corporate practice,” independent MP Cathy McGowan said.
“The Parliament is a place of work, and good workplace practice includes clear expectations about behaviour.”
Ms McGowan is backed by Queensland MP Bob Katter, who told Sky News: “I support the spirit of it most certainly and I think maybe I’ll vote for it.
“You’re in such an enormously influential position with staff.”
But senior Labor spokesman Mark Dreyfus yesterday said legislating a ban was “fraught with difficulty”.
“I do think people have got to behave themselves and I do think sex in the office is always going to present problems, but whether we need to legislate is quite another question,” he said.