Former Liberal leader says deputy PM should have gone public about his marriage breakdown sooner

John Hewson says Barnaby Joyce “gave up his right to privacy” because he managed his marriage breakdown and new relationship so poorly, saying he should have made a public statement before the New England byelection.

Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Hewson said his policy as federal Liberal party leader in the early 1990s was that private lives remained private but that “if you’re using your position to a particular benefit, I think you have a case to answer”.

The deputy prime minister’s home life was the first topic addressed by the panel, which included Western Australian Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, the Labor frontbencher Terri Butler, the Australian’s associate national affairs editor, Chris Kenny, and the Guardian Australia columnist Van Badham.

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“If adults have consenting relationships with other adults, that’s their business, one partner or many,” Badham said. “Barnaby Joyce is an international news item, not because he’s had an affair with a staffer, he’s an international news item because he is a massive staggering hypocrite and a person who passed judgment on the LGBQTI community and young women.”

Reynolds said a personal family issue – Joyce’s marriage – should not be conflated with a policy issue – same-sex marriage.

“Barnaby certainly did take a position on that, but that is a separate issue from what he does in his personal life,” Reynolds said. “For any of you in this audience who have had marriage breakdown while working, if it doesn’t impact on your job, it should not impact on how you’re treated at work.”

Reynolds also dismissed concerns raised by Kenny about Joyce’s one-time media adviser, Vicki Campion, being transferred out of his office to work for other Nationals MPs once the prime minister was made aware of their relationship.

Play Video 1:27 Van Badham calls Barnaby Joyce a 'massive, staggering hypocrite' on Q&A – video

“How the Nationals manage their staffing allocation is a matter for them,” Reynolds said. “In relation to the lady in question, I think everybody would say that she is a woman of great merit and everything I’ve heard people say, she does a fantastic job. ... I have seen nothing to say that what the National party did was wrong.”

Kenny said Joyce had become “a massive political handicap for the government” and had “embarrassed” Malcolm Turnbull.

He also said that Joyce, who “used his family in front-page articles in magazines”, would have known that the relationship would become public knowledge, and “should have controlled that for his own benefit, for his family’s benefit and for the advantage of the government”.

“My view is that … Barnaby Joyce’s political career is over,” he said.

Lou (@MsLou27) Politicians can’t smile & giggle on Kitchen Cabinet and then clutch their pearls about ‘private lives’. #qanda

The panel show, which aired on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the apology to stolen generations and on the day the Closing the Gap report was handed down in parliament, did not include a single Indigenous guest.

The academic Chelsea Bond, a Munanjahli and South Sea Islander woman, criticised the programming decision on Twitter and was backed up by the Yawuru woman Shannan Dodson, whose father, Mick Dodson, was one of the authors if the Bringing Them Home report.

chelsea bond (@drcbond) In the week of #ClosingTheGap and #Apology10 @qanda picks panel with no Blackfullas pic.twitter.com/JFJulK7cXi

Shannan Dodson (@ShannanJDodson) And The Healing Foundation pitched to have an all women panel with Stolen Generations members but politician’s affairs are more important than Indigenous lives obvis pic.twitter.com/BrF1071XPl

The only brief mention of Indigenous affairs was a suggestion that Australia introduce a broad-based constitutional referendum to amend section 44, the provision that has seen 10 MPs so far either disqualified or resigned from parliament because of their dual citizenship status, while at the same vote addressing the issue of constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

ABC Q&A (@QandA) .@vanbadham thinks it's a great opportunity to revise our constitution. John Hewson agrees that it should be done #QandA pic.twitter.com/6RYN3VDdqB

Reynolds, who chairs the parliamentary committee looking at section 44, suggested that a referendum on that issue might be necessary. “The overwhelming evidence at the moment is that the only way this can change is by vote of the people,” she said.