Washington: Malcolm Turnbull was having evening drinks in Washington when he read the news that Barnaby Joyce was about to quit.

The Prime Minister was shown a mobile phone with the news from Canberra, reported by The Australian Financial Review, almost two hours before his deputy made it official.

There was no phone call from Joyce to deliver the news to his Prime Minister. Angry at his treatment, bitter at his colleagues, Joyce kept Turnbull in the dark.

Instead, he phoned the Acting Prime Minister, Mathias Cormann, to tell him the news.