POLITICALLY speaking, it looks like Barnaby Joyce is a dead man walking.

As the fallout from his affair with now-pregnant former staffer Vikki Campion continues — not to mention the scandal surrounding her highly-paid, taxpayer-funded and government-approved roles — pressure is now building to remove Mr Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the ABC reports Nationals MPs are holding discussions on how to get their party leader to resign and according to the Herald Sun, Veterans’ Affairs Minister Michael McCormack has been named as the “overwhelming favourite” to replace him.

But doing so would be a monumental mistake.

Because in 1993, as the editor of Wagga Wagga’s Fairfax-owned local paper The Daily Advertiser, Mr McCormack penned a shocking, homophobic tirade that has never been forgotten by many members of the community.

In his column, he demonised the LGBTI community, describing them as “sordid” and “unnatural” and blaming same-sex attracted people for the AIDS epidemic.

“A week never goes by anymore that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don’t become further entrenched in society,” he wrote in his vile “from the editor’s desk” column.

“Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn’t wipe out humanity, they’re here to stay.

“How can these people call for rights when they’re responsible for the greatest medical dilemma known to man — AIDS.”

Over the years, Mr McCormack, who represents the rural NSW electorate of Riverina, has spoken publicly about his controversial piece.

In fact Mr McCormack’s column was slammed by ministerial colleague Christopher Pyne as recently as August 2017, because in his role as Small Business Minister, Mr McCormack was in charge of the Australian Bureau of Statistics which managed the marriage equality postal survey.

Mr Pyne said the remarks were “not acceptable” in modern society, and Mr McCormack went on to issue a statement, which read: “I have grown and learnt not only to tolerate, but to accept all people regardless of their sexual orientation or any other trait or feature which makes each of us different and unique.

“I apologised wholeheartedly for the comments at the time and many times since, but I am making this statement to unreservedly apologise again today.”

To his credit, Mr McCormack has apologised for his hurtful words on more than one occasion.

But in an age when political careers have ended for far less serious transgressions, how can the National Party even consider appointing someone with a history of hate speech?

When you read Mr McCormack’s comments, suddenly, an affair with a staff member pales in comparison.

THE COLUMN:

Dear readers,

“A week never goes by anymore that homosexuals and their sordid behaviour don’t become further entrenched in society.

Unfortunately gays are here and, if the disease their unnatural acts helped spread doesn’t wipe out humanity, they’re here to stay.

On Monday hundreds of thousands of homosexuals marched through Washington in a demonstration intended to show their demands for equal rights and an end to discrimination should no longer be ignored or denied.

How can these people call for rights when they’re responsible for the greatest medical dilemma known to man — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome?

AIDS shows no discrimination.

It claims thousands upon thousands of innocent people’s lives every year.

On the very night of the homosexuals’ march that pompous critic Stuart Littlemore on Media Watch on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had the gall to criticise various newspaper editors across Australia for “gay bashing”.

He ridiculed them for showing some moral backbone and condemning homosexuality.

It’s just as well some newspapers are speaking up and acting as watchdogs on moral issues. If it was left up to the likes of Littlemore, heaven knows some of the all-embracing attitudes society would be told it was OK to accept.”

alexis.carey@news.com.au