If his facial expression was anything to go by, Barnaby Joyce has just experienced the most uncomfortable interview of his life after facing up to 7.30 to discuss the revelation that the former staffer with whom he was having an affair is pregnant – yes, even more uncomfortable than that time he flipped out on The Project.
Joyce’s relationship faced intense scrutiny today after the Daily Tele published a front-page story this morning showing his partner, Vikki Campion, visibly heavily pregnant. Whether its ethical to splash the photo of a private citizen on the front of your tabloid for their part in a private relationship is neither here nor there, but Joyce’s position as a ‘family values’ conservative who warned that same-sex marriage could degrade the institution of marriage and the fact that he had a long-term affair do paint a portrait of a man with somewhat conflicting views, something Leigh Sales was quick to ask about:
SALES: On social media there’s been some commentary that during the same-sex marriage debate you spoke in favour of traditional families at the same time you were moving on from your own relationship with a staffer, what’s your response to critics who say you are a hypocrite?
JOYCE: How could that be? Just because my marriage didn’t work out doesn’t mean I disregard what marriages are about, it just means that in that instance I failed. I’m not going to start saying that just because I failed I’m going to change my views or definition.
It’s true that we don’t know the complexities of what happened in the relationship but, weirdly, he seems to be talking about it as if the affair was a natural phenomenon that occurred completely outside of his control instead of a conscious decision he made to shack up outside his marriage.
Outside of describing the end of his marriage as “one of the greatest failures of his life“, the bulk of the interview is Joyce reiterating that he doesn’t believe that any of his (or anyone’s) private life should be made public and insisting that there was no impropriety as it relates to his spending taxpayer funds.
You can watch the full interview here:
.@Barnaby_Joyce tells @leighsales the end of his marriage was “one of the greatest failures of my life”. #abc730 #auspol pic.twitter.com/maRfgpuL4u
— abc730 (@abc730) February 7, 2018
