Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Australia studies staff sex ban

Prime minister says no need to bar lawmaker-staff relations

- ROD MCGUIRK

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s prime minister talked down the need for a U.S.style ban on legislator­s having sex with staff, but declined Friday to say whether he had intervened in his deputy’s relationsh­ip with a press secretary.

The U.S. House of Representa­tives on Tuesday passed a resolution prohibitin­g members from engaging in sexual relationsh­ips with staff. On the same day, Australian newspapers reported that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and his former press adviser Vikki Campion are expecting a baby in April.

While some independen­t and minor party lawmakers see merit in the Australian Parliament considerin­g a similar ban, those in major parties are talking down the prospect.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that while lawmakers were accountabl­e, they also had a right to consensual sexual relationsh­ips.

“Relations between consenting adults is not something that normally, you would be justified in, if you like, seeking to regulate,” Turnbull told reporters.

“Adults can conduct their relationsh­ips, if it’s consensual, respectful — that’s their right,” he added.

Turnbull later declined to confirm or deny a claim that on learning about an affair, he had personally counseled Joyce to remove Campion from his office.

Turnbull also would not comment on a media report that Campion got a new job with a pay increase in April. She changed jobs again, but her contract has now ended.

“This is a deeply personal matter relating to Barnaby Joyce and his family, and I do not wish to add to the public discussion about it,” Turnbull told reporters.

“I’m very conscious of the hurt this has occasioned his wife, Natalie, and their daughters, and I have nothing further to add,” Turnbull said.

Independen­t lawmaker Cathy McGowan on Thursday invited legislator­s to discuss a potential motion in Parliament to “address personal relationsh­ips within the workplace.”

“There is a belief the Parliament is behind expectatio­ns and corporate practice,” McGowan said in a statement.

Independen­t lawmaker Bob Katter gave in-principle support for a ban.

“People’s private lives are their private lives, but I do make the comment: Not staff. Please, fellas, not staff,” Katter told Sky News television.

“You’re in such an enormously influentia­l position with staff,” he added.

Attorney-General Christian Porter described such a ban as a “very unwieldy law.” Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus also questioned whether such a ban should be legislated.

Joyce, leader of The Nationals party, told Parliament in December that he had separated from his wife of 24 years, who is the mother of his four daughters.

But he did not confirm his relationsh­ip with Campion, 33, until newspapers published photograph­s of her obviously pregnant on Tuesday.

Joyce, 50, said in a television interview Tuesday that he had never used taxpayer-funded travel or accommodat­ion to pursue the relationsh­ip. Several journalist­s had made freedom of informatio­n requests concerning his expenses in an apparent attempt to confirm the relationsh­ip but had found nothing untoward, he said.

Campion has not commented and Joyce declined to say how and when the relationsh­ip began.

 ?? AP/ROD McGUIRK ?? Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Friday in Canberra that he thought lawmakers had a right to sexual relationsh­ips with their staff members “if it’s consensual, respectful.”
AP/ROD McGUIRK Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Friday in Canberra that he thought lawmakers had a right to sexual relationsh­ips with their staff members “if it’s consensual, respectful.”

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