MP BONK BAN
TURNBULL PASSES BARNABY LAW
MALCOLM Turnbull has vowed to sack his ministers if they sleep with their staff, in an extraordinary move which puts huge pressure on Barnaby Joyce to resign.
The Prime Minister announced the office sex ban yesterday as he slammed the Deputy Prime Minister’s “shocking error of judgment” in having an affair with his media adviser, Vikki Campion.
“Today, in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them. It is a very bad workplace practice and everybody knows no good comes from it,” Mr Turnbull said in parliament.
“There was a different culture here that had gone on for a long time, and I think many women who work in this building understand very powerfully what I am saying.
“I do not care whether (ministers) are married or single, I do not care. They must not have sexual relations with their staff, that’s it.”
After a week marred by the scandal, Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce would be taking leave next week and would not serve as acting PM.
Mr Turnbull, who does not have the power to sack the Nationals leader, pointedly told Mr Joyce to “consider his own position” and “reflect” on his behaviour that had “appalled all of us”.
“The real issue here is the terrible hurt and humiliation that Barnaby, by his conduct, has visited upon his wife Natalie and their daughters, and indeed his new partner,” said Mr Turnbull. “It has been a dreadful thing for them to go through.”
Mr Turnbull said the code of conduct overhaul was long overdue, and that Mr Joyce would “be in breach” if the new rules had been in place when his affair with Ms Campion started.
Mr Joyce was yesterday censured by the Senate for his behaviour.
The Gold Coast Bulletin understands the working relationship between Mr Turnbull and Mr Joyce became strained over the past fortnight as the Nationals leader said he had no intention of stepping down.
Nationals MPs tried to force their leader to quit earlier this week but their plot fell apart. Mr Joyce said yesterday morning he was “back in business” and had “the support of my party room”.
His office later said he had written to Mr Turnbull to “take leave next week to support his family and partner after such an intense public focus on personal matters”.
Mr Turnbull insisted all week that Mr Joyce would serve as Acting Prime Minister next week but instead, with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop away in Europe, Liberal Senate leader Mathias Cormann will act in the role.
Labor argued Mr Joyce should be sacked for breaching the existing rules by getting Ms Campion jobs with Nationals colleagues and staying rent-free in an apartment owned by a millionaire businessman.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said Mr Turnbull had “lost all confidence in his deputy, but he’s refusing to do the right thing and sack him”.
Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce had explained the situation with the apartment and had not breached the code.
But he said the ministerial code of conduct was “truly deficient” and the sex ban would not be the last change.
“(The code of conduct) does not speak strongly enough for the values that we should all live, values of respect, respectful workplaces, of workplaces where women are respected,” he said.
Liberal MP Sarah Henderson welcomed the Prime Minister’s “very strong stand” and called for all members of Parliament to “comply with this same standard”.