Joyce looks shaky, losing WA state support

SYDNEY: A state branch of the Australian National Party has pulled its support for Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce because of his extramarital affair, its leader said yesterday, opening a new rift in the ruling coalition.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who introduced a ban on sexual relationships between ministers and their staff on Thursday, said Joyce had shown a ‘‘shocking error of judgement’’ by conducting an affair with his former press secretary, who is now pregnant.

Joyce, the National Party’s federal leader, has refused to resign, maintaining he has the support of his party.

But the Western Australian branch of the party disagreed.

‘‘I have today contacted Barnaby Joyce to inform him he no longer has the support of the Parliamentary National Party of Western Australia as the Leader of the Federal National Party,’’ Western Australia state leader Mia Davies said. ‘‘Mr Joyce’s actions have caused pain for his family but it is the ongoing damage Mr Joyce is causing the Nationals’ organisation that is of greatest concern to me.’’

As the National Party leader, Joyce is automatically deputy prime minister, under the conventions of a centuryold coalition between his rural party and the conservative Liberals.

The move adds fuel to a political storm which has held newspaper front pages for weeks. Joyce has campaigned on traditional family values. — Reuters