Arguably, not since Bill Clinton has an affair between a senior politician and a political staffer wrought such havoc on a federal government. Over the last two weeks political coverage in this country has been about little else.

Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the Nationals Party and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, conducted an extramarital sexual relationship with a member of his staff, who subsequently became pregnant.

The less principled quarters of the Australian media have been obsessed with the titillating nature of the sexual scandal itself. Other news outlets and Joyce’s political opponents have tried to make the scandal about anything other than sex. For those too squeamish to ‘moralise’ about the sexual conduct of ‘consenting adults’, it’s Joyce’s hypocrisy that sticks in their craw.

All that changed as soon as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced a change to the ministerial code of conduct, prohibiting sex between government ministers and staffers.

What is remarkable is the moral inarticulacy that has surrounded the Joyce affair – the lack of basic agreement on fundamental questions: Should the ‘private lives’ of public figures be the objects of scrutiny? Is there a difference between the virtues demanded of those who hold public office and the character we would desire to see in individuals qua citizens? Should workplaces be places where one might reasonably pursue sexual conduct?



