Malcolm Turnbull stands by his condemnation of Barnaby Joyce’s actions, and Scott Morrison agrees with him – while both have claimed everything is fine with the Coalition partnership despite the “forceful” nature of the prime minister’s comments.

Morrison was sent out on Sunday to assure voters that all was well, while quibbling over whether the prime minister had ever advised Joyce to step down.

“That was a direct position to the deputy prime minister, not to the National party. I mean, that’s a decision for Barnaby to make, as it would be for a Liberal minister in those situations as well,” Morrison told the ABC’s Insiders program.

Morrison maintained the issue was about standards: “This is about having sex with one of your staff when you’re a person of power and influence as a minister,” he said.

“This is not moral police. It doesn’t matter if you’re married or single. You shouldn’t sleep with your staff. It’s a bad practice. It’s not conducive to the good running of your office and the performance of your duties. And that’s the public interest point,” he said.



“But clearly, as a standard, it obviously now needs to be set out and I’m disappointed that Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek don’t think it’s a standard that they should sign up to.”

Turnbull and Joyce held a private meeting without their staff in Sydney on Saturday to discuss the breakdown in their relationship, after the prime minister publicly advised his deputy to “reflect” on his future after creating “a world of woe” which had “appalled everyone”.



Joyce returned fire the following day, referring to Turnbull’s comments as “inept”, “unnecessary” and as having inflamed the situation.

Morrison said Joyce’s position in the National party was a matter for that party.

“It’s a matter that I’m sure they’ll be contemplating. But yesterday, the meeting, I think, did a couple of things. One was that it demonstrated that the two men can sit down and have a frank conversation about these things. It is not the first time they have talked about these things before.

“There is no demurring from the substance of what the prime minister said on Thursday. There was obviously some sensitivity to the forcefulness of it, but frankly, I wasn’t surprised by the forcefulness of it, because I know the prime minister’s strong views on this and his lived experience.”

On Sunday, most players went to ground. Joyce was excused from official duties to take “personal leave”, while Turnbull prepared for his trip to the United States to meet Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, a consensus candidate has yet to emerge within the National party who might challenge Joyce for the party leadership, with Joyce’s camp maintaining he still has the numbers to hold on.



On Friday, National MPs were said to be uniting around Joyce, angry over what they took as interference in their party processes by the prime minister in his unexpected attack.

But party sources also said they would spend the week in between House of Representative sittings gauging the views in their electorates, as the Nationals work out how best to fend off a One Nation insurgence in their traditional constituencies.

Michael McCormack, one of the potential leadership contenders, along with ousted minister Darren Chester, publicly confirmed this on Saturday.

“Obviously what else transpires – not just in our electorates but obviously on a national front – has to be thought through,” he told Fairfax Media.

When asked if he would throw his own hat into the leadership ring, McCormack said he didn’t want to “get too far ahead of myself in anything in politics”.