NATION Ice cracks around Joyce Exit appearing more likely as Nationals support for leader splinters
THE number of Nationals MPs wanting Barnaby Joyce to stand down over his affair with a staffer has risen after talking with voters in their electorates.
It is understood some senior Nationals who were late last week supportive of Mr Joyce remaining leader have switched to the “anti- Barnaby” camp after returning home from Canberra and talking with their constituents over the weekend.
One MP, who wished not to be named, said anger was “white- hot” in the electorate and it was up to Mr Joyce to end the saga by standing down.
Nationals MPs are canvassing the option of a leadership challenge to Mr Joyce when parliament resumes next week, following revelations Mr Joyce’s partner and former staffer Vikki Campion is now pregnant with his baby.
NSW MP Michael McCormack, the Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel, is being flagged by MPs as the likely leadership option in any challenge to Mr Joyce.
Queensland MP Ken O’Dowd said constituents were telling him the issue MALCOLM Turnbull consulted his wife Lucy before announcing the ministerial sex ban following Barnaby Joyce’s affair with his now- pregnant former staffer Vikki Campion.
And he says “time will tell” whether the Deputy Prime Minister can be rehabilitated after the scandal.
“This is one of those classic issues where it’s good to take counsel from your wife, your life partner,” Mr Turnbull told 60 Minutes last night. “Lucy absolutely agrees, and I mean, who would disagree ... if they’re a minister in my government they cannot have sexual relations with their staff.”
In an awkward twist the PM’s grandchild is expected in the same month as Ms Campion is due to give birth. “needed to be resolved sooner rather than later”.
“The feedback I’m getting is that he’s been a good leader up until this point,” he said.
“He ( Mr Joyce) has three options, we can have the status quo, the second option is he resigns as leader and goes to the backbench and the third is he quits politics all together.
“The longer it goes on, the more damage it does to the party and the Coalition.”
Dawson MP George Christensen said he believed the number of MPs canvassing a challenge to Mr Joyce was “four or five hardcore people”.
“My understanding is that the people in the Nationals who had issues with Barnaby last week still have issues with Barnaby this week. To my reckoning it is not a majority,” Mr Christensen said.
He said electorate feedback varied but the majority view was “it’s a personal issue so why can’t they leave him alone”.
It comes as Malcolm Turnbull said he had a “frank and warm, friendly, good constructive meeting” with Mr Joyce in Sydney at the weekend, after the Prime Minister accused Mr Joyce of a “shocking error of judgment” that “appalled us all”.
Asked whether he had apologised to Mr Joyce, Mr Turnbull said: “No. There’s nothing to apologise for.”
Treasurer Scott Morrison backed Mr Turnbull telling the ABC’s Insiders: “I’m sorry – if you sleep with your staff, it’s not private any more, it’s public, because you’re a minister in a position of responsibility and power over those who work for you.
“There was obviously some sensitivity to the forcefulness of it but, frankly, I wasn’t surprised by the forcefulness of it because I know the Prime Minister’s strong views on this and his lived experience.”