Australian deputy PM ‘will resign’

AUSTRALIA’S deputy prime minister said yesterday he will resign as leader of his party after weeks of pressure over an affair with a staffer that brought him into open conflict with his premier and a new allegation of sexual harassment emerged.

Barnaby Joyce said he will step down on Monday as leader of the National Party, the junior partner in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s centre-right coalition, after resisting earlier calls to quit over the affair with his former media secretary, with whom he is expecting a child.

He will remain in parliament, safeguarding Mr Turnbull’s shaky one-seat majority.

Mr Joyce’s decision came after a falling-out with Mr Turnbull, who is in the United States for meetings with President Donald Trump and who declined to leave him in charge while he is out of the country.

Mr Turnbull called Mr Joyce’s affair a “shocking error of judgment” last week, to which the latter responded by calling the Prime Minister “inept”.

Mr Joyce, a practising Catholic, has been married for 24 years and has campaigned on family values. He said he decided to quit after the new allegation of sexual harassment emerged yesterday.

He denied any wrongdoing but acknowledged the allegation had hastened his decision.

“I will say on Monday morning at the party room I will step down as the leader of the National Party and deputy leader of Australia,” Mr Joyce said.

Mr Joyce, whose support base rests in Australia’s traditionally conservative rural areas, wore his trademark Akubra bushman’s hat as he spoke to journalists in Armidale, the farming town he represents about 485 kilometres north-east of Sydney.

Little-known outside Australia, Mr Joyce made international headlines in 2015 when he deported two dogs brought into Australia by US actor Johnny Depp without the proper paperwork, a row that became known as the “war on terrier”.

Mr Joyce had only been back in parliament less than a month after falling victim to a citizenship crisis that has dogged Mr Turnbull’s government. Australia’s High Court deemed Mr Joyce was a New Zealand citizen in October, forcing Mr Turnbull to rule in minority until Mr Joyce re-contested and won his seat again.

National Party federal director Ben Hindmarsh said yesterday the party had received the sexual harassment allegation against Mr Joyce but declined to give any details.

A spokesman said Mr Joyce believed the claim to be “spurious and defamatory” and had asked for it to be referred to police.

The National Party will now elect a new leader, who will also become deputy prime minister under the terms of the coalition agreement with Mr Turnbull’s Liberal party. Veterans Affairs Minister Michael McCormack and David Gillespie, the assistant minister for children and families, both said they would contest the leadership ballot on Monday.