http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43067310
Barnaby Joyce: Australia PM bans ministers from sex with staff
Image caption Barnaby Joyce will take one week of leave, Malcolm Turnbull says
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has said he will prohibit sex between ministers and their staff, after it was revealed his deputy had an affair with a former staffer.
In a press briefing, he condemned Barnaby Joyce for a "shocking error of judgement".
Mr Joyce will take a leave of absence from Monday amid scrutiny over whether he breached ministerial standards.
Both Mr Joyce and Mr Turnbull deny that any rules, as defined, were broken.
But the prime minister said he would overhaul the "truly deficient" ministerial code of conduct.
"Ministers must behave accordingly. They must not have sexual relations with their staff - that's it," he told reporters.
Mr Turnbull earlier told parliament that Mr Joyce would not fill his post as acting leader next week when the prime minister travels to the US.
The scandal has dominated Australian politics since last Wednesday when Mr Joyce's affair with media adviser Vikki Campion was publicly revealed.
Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce would be on leave for a week from Monday. Opposition parties called on him to resign.
The high-profile conservative had only returned to parliament in December after briefly losing his job over his New Zealand dual citizenship.
'World of woe'
Mr Turnbull said his deputy had caused "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his estranged wife, Natalie Joyce, their four daughters, and Ms Campion.
"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office," he said.
"In doing so he has set off a world of woe for those women, and appalled all of us. Our hearts go out to them."
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Malcolm Turnbull said the new rules covered those "married and single"
On Tuesday, Mr Joyce publicly apologised to all six for what he called a "searing personal experience".
Mr Turnbull said such behaviour was not acceptable "today, in 2018", and ministers must oversee respectful workplaces.
Joyce takes cover
Hywel Griffith, BBC News Sydney correspondent
It's unlike Barnaby Joyce to step away from the front line. He's a hardened battler who normally revels in the noisy confrontation of politics.
Mr Joyce is the man who took on Johnny Depp, a man he called a "dipstick", and won; the politician who survived the citizenship row and was re-elected with an increased majority.
The man in the Akubra hat was riding high until his extramarital affair was exposed and he lost authority within his own party.
With the storm around him showing no sign of slowing, Mr Joyce will hope his impromptu holiday can somehow calm matters.
But his opponents are unlikely to stop sniping, just because he's taken cover.
On Thursday, the Senate passed a motion calling on Mr Joyce to resign - although it has no power to force such a move.
Mr Joyce has faced questions over the timing of two unadvertised jobs within his party that were taken up by Ms Campion last year.
Under the code of conduct, Mr Turnbull must approve any ministerial department job given to the partner of a frontbencher. No permission was sought for Ms Campion.
However, both Mr Joyce and Mr Turnbull maintain that Ms Campion was not the deputy prime minister's partner at the time.
Mr Joyce was due to step in as acting prime minister while Mr Turnbull is on his trip to the US, in line with usual convention.
The role will instead be taken up by Mathias Cormann, the government's leader in the Senate.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...sex-with-staff-barnaby-joyce-malcolm-turnbull
Australia bans ministers from having sex with staff after Barnaby Joyce scandal
Malcolm Turnbull responds to ‘shocking error of judgment’ by deputy PM, who had a relationship with a former staffer who is now pregnant
Katharine Murphy Political editor
@murpharoo
Thu 15 Feb 2018 08.09 GMT Last modified on Thu 15 Feb 2018 15.41 GMT
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Malcolm Turnbull announces ban on ministers having sex with their staffers – video
Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will move to ban sexual relationships between ministers and their staff, in response to a scandal which has engulfed the deputy prime minister and leader of the National party, Barnaby Joyce.
Turnbull announced the ban at the end of a parliamentary week dominated by controversy over Joyce’s relationship with a former staffer, Vikki Campion, which began when Sydney’s Daily Telegraph published a front-page photograph effectively confirming the end of Joyce’s 24-year marriage, and Campion’s pregnancy.
1:46
Why is Barnaby Joyce's leadership under threat? – video explainer
The prime minister said on Thursday his deputy had made “a shocking error of judgment” and created a “world of woe” for the women in his life. He said Joyce was taking some personal leave to reflect and seek forgiveness from his former wife and four daughters, “and make a new home for his partner and their baby”.
In a swingeing assessment of Joyce’s conduct and judgment, reflecting a rupture in their relationship, Turnbull said the incident involving the deputy prime minister and Campion, who was employed as his media adviser, raised “some serious issues about the culture of this place, of this parliament”.
What Turnbull said about Joyce and the code of conduct changes – full transcript
Read more
The prime minister said the code of ministerial standards needed to “speak clearly about the values of respect in workplaces, the values of integrity that Australians expect us to have”.
He said Australians expected parliamentarians to behave decorously. Ministers needed to be “very conscious that their spouses and children sacrifice a great deal so they can carry on their political career, and their families deserve honour and respect”.
Turnbull said when it came to serving in public life, “values should be lived”.
He said he intended to add “a very clear and unequivocal provision” to the ministerial code of conduct: “Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff.”
The prime minister’s declaration late afternoon, and his direct reflection on the behaviour of his colleague, followed confirmation earlier in the day that Joyce will not act in the top job, as is customary, when Turnbull departs Australia to visit Washington next week.
The Liberals govern in coalition with the Nationals, and when the prime minister is overseas, the leader of the National party acts in the role.
PM changes code of conduct to ban sex between ministers and staffers – as it happened
Read more
Turnbull confirmed that decision during parliamentary question time on Thursday, in a highly visible gesture tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the leader of the National party.
To compound Joyce’s woes, the Senate also passed a motion on Thursday afternoon calling on him to resign or be sacked. The vote passed 35 votes to 29, and no Liberal colleagues spoke in support of the deputy prime minister.
Nationals had hoped the rolling controversy around Joyce was beginning to subside at the conclusion of a difficult parliamentary week, but Turnbull’s public benching of his colleague at the opening of question time, and the late afternoon upgrade of the ministerial code of conduct, hangs a lantern over the deputy prime minister’s woes.
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Senior Liberals, including the prime minister, have sought to distance themselves from the Joyce fracas throughout the week.
A spokesman for the deputy prime minister said the decision to take leave next week was Joyce’s. He had asked for personal leave because “he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters”.
As well as the obvious efforts by Liberals to isolate him, Joyce on Thursday also faced a fresh round of parliamentary scrutiny about his dealings with the businessman Greg Maguire, who supplied free accommodation in Armidale when the deputy prime minister separated from his wife of 24 years, Natalie.
After first suspending the standing orders in parliament early in the day to force Joyce to account for that arrangement, Labor then doubled down on the inquisition in question time.
The deputy prime minister told parliament Maguire had contacted him to offer him a place to stay in Armidale, rent-free, as a favour for a “mate”.
But the businessman has contradicted this version, previously telling two newspapers it was Joyce who first approached him seeking a temporary place to stay, and that the deputy prime minister offered to pay rent.
As well as pursuing the issue of whether or not Joyce had potentially misled the House of Representatives in his account of the conversation, and whether the contact breached ministerial standards, Labor also raised an instance where the Department of Agriculture picked up the tab for a $5,000 function at Maguire’s hotel in Armidale in 2016.
Barnaby Joyce and the difficulties avoiding a conflict of interest
Read more
In seeking to land a point about a potential breach of ministerial standards, the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, pointed out Maguire had been the recipient of “at least $5,000 of taxpayers’ money in his pocket when he gave the deputy prime minister free accommodation” after the breakup of his marriage.
Joyce stood by his account of the conversation with Maguire concerning the Armidale property, and professed to be unaware about the $5,000 payment to the businessman for the departmental function at the Quality Hotel Powerhouse.
The deputy prime minister said it wasn’t notable to be unaware of such a small payment in a “multibillion-dollar department”.
The ministerial standards say ministers in their official capacity may accept customary official gifts, hospitality tokens of appreciation, but must not seek or encourage any form of gift in their personal capacity.
The rules also state that gifts “in a purely personal capacity” don’t need to be registered unless the parliamentarian judges that a conflict of interest “may be seen to exist”.
The prime minister told parliament that according to Joyce’s account of his conversation with Maguire “he did not encourage or solicit the gift, and unless honourable members opposite are able to present a case that his statements are false, then he has not breached that particular ministerial standard which I just quoted from”.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information. Thomasine F-R.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as £1, you can support the Guardian – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
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https://www.rt.com/news/418921-australia-ban-sex-ministers/
Ministers banned from sex with staffers as deputy PM gets adviser pregnant
Published time: 15 Feb, 2018 16:09
Get short URL
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as he sits in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, October 25, 201© Mick Tsikas / Reuters
Malcolm Turnbull announced the ban following the scandal which erupted after the Sydney Daily Telegraph published a front-page photograph, essentially exposing Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with his former media adviser Vikki Campion. arnaby, who was also leader of the National Party and married for 24 years, made a “shocking error of judgment”, created a “world of woe” for the women in his life and “appalled all of us,” said Turnbull.
READ MORE: US professor fired after telling student ‘Australia isn’t a country’
Joyce is now taking a week-long personal leave from his duties to “make a new home for his partner and their baby,” which is due in April, as well as seek forgiveness from his now-estranged wife and four daughters, Turnbull added. During a speech addressing the governmental scandal on Thursday, Turnbull said the affair raised “some serious issues about the culture of this place, of this parliament,” and announced his intent to make changes to the ministerial code of conduct “as of today.”
READ MORE: Former US House Speaker Hastert banned from being alone with minors
"I have today added to the standards the very clear and unequivocal provision that ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with a staff member," said Turnbull at a press conference in Canberra.
"Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards,” he said, before adding that Joyce will “have to consider his own position” as leader of the National Party. Turnbull stopped short of asking for Joyce’s resignation as deputy PM.
Barnaby Joyce: Australia PM bans ministers from sex with staff
- 15 February 2018
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Image caption Barnaby Joyce will take one week of leave, Malcolm Turnbull says
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has said he will prohibit sex between ministers and their staff, after it was revealed his deputy had an affair with a former staffer.
In a press briefing, he condemned Barnaby Joyce for a "shocking error of judgement".
Mr Joyce will take a leave of absence from Monday amid scrutiny over whether he breached ministerial standards.
Both Mr Joyce and Mr Turnbull deny that any rules, as defined, were broken.
But the prime minister said he would overhaul the "truly deficient" ministerial code of conduct.
"Ministers must behave accordingly. They must not have sexual relations with their staff - that's it," he told reporters.
Mr Turnbull earlier told parliament that Mr Joyce would not fill his post as acting leader next week when the prime minister travels to the US.
The scandal has dominated Australian politics since last Wednesday when Mr Joyce's affair with media adviser Vikki Campion was publicly revealed.
Mr Turnbull said Mr Joyce would be on leave for a week from Monday. Opposition parties called on him to resign.
The high-profile conservative had only returned to parliament in December after briefly losing his job over his New Zealand dual citizenship.
'World of woe'
Mr Turnbull said his deputy had caused "terrible hurt and humiliation" to his estranged wife, Natalie Joyce, their four daughters, and Ms Campion.
"Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office," he said.
"In doing so he has set off a world of woe for those women, and appalled all of us. Our hearts go out to them."
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Malcolm Turnbull said the new rules covered those "married and single"
On Tuesday, Mr Joyce publicly apologised to all six for what he called a "searing personal experience".
Mr Turnbull said such behaviour was not acceptable "today, in 2018", and ministers must oversee respectful workplaces.
Joyce takes cover
Hywel Griffith, BBC News Sydney correspondent
It's unlike Barnaby Joyce to step away from the front line. He's a hardened battler who normally revels in the noisy confrontation of politics.
Mr Joyce is the man who took on Johnny Depp, a man he called a "dipstick", and won; the politician who survived the citizenship row and was re-elected with an increased majority.
The man in the Akubra hat was riding high until his extramarital affair was exposed and he lost authority within his own party.
With the storm around him showing no sign of slowing, Mr Joyce will hope his impromptu holiday can somehow calm matters.
But his opponents are unlikely to stop sniping, just because he's taken cover.
On Thursday, the Senate passed a motion calling on Mr Joyce to resign - although it has no power to force such a move.
Mr Joyce has faced questions over the timing of two unadvertised jobs within his party that were taken up by Ms Campion last year.
Under the code of conduct, Mr Turnbull must approve any ministerial department job given to the partner of a frontbencher. No permission was sought for Ms Campion.
However, both Mr Joyce and Mr Turnbull maintain that Ms Campion was not the deputy prime minister's partner at the time.
Mr Joyce was due to step in as acting prime minister while Mr Turnbull is on his trip to the US, in line with usual convention.
The role will instead be taken up by Mathias Cormann, the government's leader in the Senate.
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...sex-with-staff-barnaby-joyce-malcolm-turnbull
Australia bans ministers from having sex with staff after Barnaby Joyce scandal
Malcolm Turnbull responds to ‘shocking error of judgment’ by deputy PM, who had a relationship with a former staffer who is now pregnant
Katharine Murphy Political editor
@murpharoo
Thu 15 Feb 2018 08.09 GMT Last modified on Thu 15 Feb 2018 15.41 GMT
Shares
875
0:57
Malcolm Turnbull announces ban on ministers having sex with their staffers – video
Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will move to ban sexual relationships between ministers and their staff, in response to a scandal which has engulfed the deputy prime minister and leader of the National party, Barnaby Joyce.
Turnbull announced the ban at the end of a parliamentary week dominated by controversy over Joyce’s relationship with a former staffer, Vikki Campion, which began when Sydney’s Daily Telegraph published a front-page photograph effectively confirming the end of Joyce’s 24-year marriage, and Campion’s pregnancy.
1:46
Why is Barnaby Joyce's leadership under threat? – video explainer
The prime minister said on Thursday his deputy had made “a shocking error of judgment” and created a “world of woe” for the women in his life. He said Joyce was taking some personal leave to reflect and seek forgiveness from his former wife and four daughters, “and make a new home for his partner and their baby”.
In a swingeing assessment of Joyce’s conduct and judgment, reflecting a rupture in their relationship, Turnbull said the incident involving the deputy prime minister and Campion, who was employed as his media adviser, raised “some serious issues about the culture of this place, of this parliament”.
What Turnbull said about Joyce and the code of conduct changes – full transcript
Read more
The prime minister said the code of ministerial standards needed to “speak clearly about the values of respect in workplaces, the values of integrity that Australians expect us to have”.
He said Australians expected parliamentarians to behave decorously. Ministers needed to be “very conscious that their spouses and children sacrifice a great deal so they can carry on their political career, and their families deserve honour and respect”.
Turnbull said when it came to serving in public life, “values should be lived”.
He said he intended to add “a very clear and unequivocal provision” to the ministerial code of conduct: “Ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with staff.”
The prime minister’s declaration late afternoon, and his direct reflection on the behaviour of his colleague, followed confirmation earlier in the day that Joyce will not act in the top job, as is customary, when Turnbull departs Australia to visit Washington next week.
The Liberals govern in coalition with the Nationals, and when the prime minister is overseas, the leader of the National party acts in the role.
PM changes code of conduct to ban sex between ministers and staffers – as it happened
Read more
Turnbull confirmed that decision during parliamentary question time on Thursday, in a highly visible gesture tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the leader of the National party.
To compound Joyce’s woes, the Senate also passed a motion on Thursday afternoon calling on him to resign or be sacked. The vote passed 35 votes to 29, and no Liberal colleagues spoke in support of the deputy prime minister.
Nationals had hoped the rolling controversy around Joyce was beginning to subside at the conclusion of a difficult parliamentary week, but Turnbull’s public benching of his colleague at the opening of question time, and the late afternoon upgrade of the ministerial code of conduct, hangs a lantern over the deputy prime minister’s woes.
Advertisement
Senior Liberals, including the prime minister, have sought to distance themselves from the Joyce fracas throughout the week.
A spokesman for the deputy prime minister said the decision to take leave next week was Joyce’s. He had asked for personal leave because “he wanted to support his family and partner after such intense public focus on personal matters”.
As well as the obvious efforts by Liberals to isolate him, Joyce on Thursday also faced a fresh round of parliamentary scrutiny about his dealings with the businessman Greg Maguire, who supplied free accommodation in Armidale when the deputy prime minister separated from his wife of 24 years, Natalie.
After first suspending the standing orders in parliament early in the day to force Joyce to account for that arrangement, Labor then doubled down on the inquisition in question time.
The deputy prime minister told parliament Maguire had contacted him to offer him a place to stay in Armidale, rent-free, as a favour for a “mate”.
But the businessman has contradicted this version, previously telling two newspapers it was Joyce who first approached him seeking a temporary place to stay, and that the deputy prime minister offered to pay rent.
As well as pursuing the issue of whether or not Joyce had potentially misled the House of Representatives in his account of the conversation, and whether the contact breached ministerial standards, Labor also raised an instance where the Department of Agriculture picked up the tab for a $5,000 function at Maguire’s hotel in Armidale in 2016.
Barnaby Joyce and the difficulties avoiding a conflict of interest
Read more
In seeking to land a point about a potential breach of ministerial standards, the shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, pointed out Maguire had been the recipient of “at least $5,000 of taxpayers’ money in his pocket when he gave the deputy prime minister free accommodation” after the breakup of his marriage.
Joyce stood by his account of the conversation with Maguire concerning the Armidale property, and professed to be unaware about the $5,000 payment to the businessman for the departmental function at the Quality Hotel Powerhouse.
The deputy prime minister said it wasn’t notable to be unaware of such a small payment in a “multibillion-dollar department”.
The ministerial standards say ministers in their official capacity may accept customary official gifts, hospitality tokens of appreciation, but must not seek or encourage any form of gift in their personal capacity.
The rules also state that gifts “in a purely personal capacity” don’t need to be registered unless the parliamentarian judges that a conflict of interest “may be seen to exist”.
The prime minister told parliament that according to Joyce’s account of his conversation with Maguire “he did not encourage or solicit the gift, and unless honourable members opposite are able to present a case that his statements are false, then he has not breached that particular ministerial standard which I just quoted from”.
Since you’re here …
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information. Thomasine F-R.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as £1, you can support the Guardian – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
Become a supporter
Make a contribution
https://www.rt.com/news/418921-australia-ban-sex-ministers/
Ministers banned from sex with staffers as deputy PM gets adviser pregnant
Published time: 15 Feb, 2018 16:09
Get short URL
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as he sits in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, October 25, 201© Mick Tsikas / Reuters
- 25
Malcolm Turnbull announced the ban following the scandal which erupted after the Sydney Daily Telegraph published a front-page photograph, essentially exposing Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce’s relationship with his former media adviser Vikki Campion. arnaby, who was also leader of the National Party and married for 24 years, made a “shocking error of judgment”, created a “world of woe” for the women in his life and “appalled all of us,” said Turnbull.
READ MORE: US professor fired after telling student ‘Australia isn’t a country’
Joyce is now taking a week-long personal leave from his duties to “make a new home for his partner and their baby,” which is due in April, as well as seek forgiveness from his now-estranged wife and four daughters, Turnbull added. During a speech addressing the governmental scandal on Thursday, Turnbull said the affair raised “some serious issues about the culture of this place, of this parliament,” and announced his intent to make changes to the ministerial code of conduct “as of today.”
READ MORE: Former US House Speaker Hastert banned from being alone with minors
"I have today added to the standards the very clear and unequivocal provision that ministers, regardless of whether they are married or single, must not engage in sexual relations with a staff member," said Turnbull at a press conference in Canberra.
"Doing so will constitute a breach of the standards,” he said, before adding that Joyce will “have to consider his own position” as leader of the National Party. Turnbull stopped short of asking for Joyce’s resignation as deputy PM.
