Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday said he is overhauling the code of conduct for government ministers and barred them from sexual relations with their staff, as he sought to contain a scandal engulfing Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
Joyce, 50, this week made a televised apology to his wife and four daughters after conducting an extramarital affair with his former press secretary, which has ended his 24-year marriage.
He confirmed last week that his now partner Vikki Campion is pregnant with his child.
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Joyce is to take a week’s leave of absence.
“The deputy prime minister will be taking leave from Monday ... and accordingly will not be able to be acting prime minister while I’m overseas,” Turnbull said above loud heckling in parliament.
Seeking to draw a line under the matter, Turnbull told reporters that Joyce had caused “terrible hurt and humiliation” to his family and Campion, and made a “shocking error of judgement.”
“Barnaby made a shocking error of judgement in having an affair with a young woman working in his office, in doing so he has set off a world of woe for those women and appalled all of us,” Turnbull said.
The ministerial code will be updated to reflect government ministers must exercise judgement, recognize the public has high expectations of them and that “regardless of whether they are married or single must not engage in sexual relations with their staff,” he said.
Joyce’s affair has triggered a debate in Australia about what parts of a lawmaker’s life are private and should be off-limits to media reporting.
Turnbull’s overhaul of the ministerial code comes after the US House of Representatives last week adopted rules banning sex between members and their staff.
While the revelations have damaged Joyce’s credibility as a family man, he is also under pressure amid allegations he allowed Campion to work in his and another ministerial office during the affair. The ministerial code of conduct bans ministers from employing their “partner.”
A poll published in Fairfax newspapers yesterday shows Joyce’s popularity plummeting since admitting to the affair.
The percentage of voters backing him crashed to 43 percent, according to the ReachTEL poll, down from the 63 percent margin he won at a by-election in December last year.
There are also questions about Joyce’s acceptance, rent-free, of a townhouse belonging to a wealthy friend, Greg Maguire, and whether Joyce broke ministerial rules forbidding asking for gifts.
Joyce denied asking for the townhouse.
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