Hear ye, hear ye, the politicians are being chaotic again! Barnaby Joyce offered to resign from his post as Deputy PM after a leaked text revealed he’d called Scott Morrison a “hypocrite and a liar”.
It was revealed on Friday that Joyce had texted Brittany Higgins through an anonymous third party in March of 2021. The text, first shared by The Sydney Morning Herald, called Morrison a “hypocrite and a liar”.
“Tell BH [Brittany Higgins] I and Scott, he is Scott to me until I have to recognise his office, don’t get along,” the text read.
“He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time. I Have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie.”
Punchy stuff.
Joyce apologised for the text on Friday night and Scott Morrison said in a statement that he had accepted the apology.
“I understand Barnaby was in a different headspace last year, both professionally and personally, and so I know he genuinely no longer feels this way,” Morrison said.
“Relationships change over time. Politicians are humans beings too. We all have our frailties and none of us are perfect.”
It’s now been revealed that Joyce actually offered to resign over the whole fiasco, but Morrison wouldn’t let him.
“When it came to light a couple of days ago, I rang the Prime Minister immediately. I apologised, he accepted my apology,” Barnaby Joyce told reporters on Saturday morning.
“I offered my resignation, and he did not accept my resignation.
“That in itself is a statement of a person of greater character. That is not one of a person of any form of vindictiveness, or pique, or a sense of retribution.”
He said that his view of the PM at the time of the text was based on “assumption and commentary” instead of a “one-on-one” working relationship.
I can only imagine the awkward convos by Parliament’s water cooler.
Joyce has now pulled out of an interview with ABC’s Insiders. He was slated to feature on the show on Sunday morning.
Labor party leader Anthony Albanese called for Joyce to resign over the whole thing.
“Barnaby Joyce said that was a year ago, I have got to know him better — hang on a second here,” Albanese said, as per the ABC.
“That was after Barnaby Joyce had served in the cabinet for over half a decade alongside of Scott Morrison, when deputy prime minister of Australia the first time and a senior cabinet minister serving in a cabinet with Scott Morrison … and serving in Parliament with him for over a decade.
“The idea that this was just a flippant remark is simply untenable.”
Ah, politicians. Always the messiest binches at the table.
