Labor deputy says Barnaby Joyce and Malcolm Turnbull must be ‘fully transparent’ about how taxpayer money was spent

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Tanya Plibersek says Coalition MPs should reflect on their treatment of Julia Gillard and Cheryl Kernot as they now argue that Barnaby Joyce’s affair with a former staffer is a private matter.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday, the deputy Labor leader said the opposition would maintain the pressure on Joyce over the issue of expenditure of taxpayer funds but respected that he does not need to account for his personal behaviour.

On Wednesday the Daily Telegraph revealed Joyce’s affair with his former staffer Vikki Campion, who is now pregnant with his child. The story led to revelations that Campion moved to Matt Canavan’s office in April and then to Damian Drum’s as a senior media adviser before her employment came to an end in December.

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Plibersek noted that the prime minister’s office has sign-off on staffing changes.

She called on Joyce and Malcolm Turnbull to be “fully transparent” about the expenditure of taxpayer funds, which she said was the “only area in which there is a genuine public interest”.

Plibersek said it was an “awful time” for Joyce’s family and Labor did not want to “add to their distress” but would continue to ask questions.

“It does appear that the jobs were created in addition to the jobs that already existed in these offices,” she said. “They were quite high rates of pay.”

Plibersek questioned whether the jobs were necessary and noted that although internal transfers are fine the “proper process” would include giving other applicants who might be interested the chance to apply.

Asked if a sexist double standard had resulted in less scrutiny of Joyce than a woman in a position of leadership, Plibersek said she remembered “horrible things” said by Liberals and Nationals about Julia Gillard, Cheryl Kernot and others.

“I think perhaps they ought to reflect on how they behaved in that period,” she said. “And think about how they want people to behave now. I hope it causes a little bit of self-reflection from some of those people.”

Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister, partly attributed her difficulties in the job to sexist media coverage and famously denounced the then opposition leader, Tony Abbott, in a speech about misogyny that received worldwide media coverage.

Kernot, a former leader of the Australian Democrats, had an affair with Labor’s Gareth Evans, which attracted adverse media commentary.

On Sunday the government leader in the Senate, Mathias Cormann, told Sky News the issue was “deeply personal” and Joyce had addressed it.

On Wednesday Joyce called the breakdown of his marriage “one of the greatest failures in [his] life” and denied any wrongdoing such as misspending public money to maintain the relationship with Campion.

“This is obviously a staffing position inside the National party ... everything is appropriate here, there were appropriate processes,” Cormann said. “She’s clearly someone who is qualified to do the job, she was hired for certain positions on merit and there’s nothing to add.”

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Campion, a former deputy chief of staff of the Daily Telegraph, was hired as a senior media adviser for Drum, which Cormann said was “self-evidently” not improperly created for her.

Cormann said he was not aware of the arrangements but “all of my advice is that everything was above board and I’m very surprised that the Labor party would go here”.

On Sunday Joyce told the ABC he intends to contest the next election.

Natalie Joyce has said she feels “deceived and hurt” by her husband and that she is “deeply saddened by the news that my husband has been having an affair and is now having a child with a former staff member”.

On Saturday it was revealed that Joyce declared the gift of a free rental property in Armidale in his pecuniary interest register and is believed to be living there with Campion.