Potential Barnaby Joyce successor has been named
There is mounting political pressure to remove Barnaby Joyce as Deputy Prime Minister after reports the National Party is discussing how they can convince their leader to formally resign.
After his affair with former media advisor Vikki Campion, who is pregnant with Joyce’s child, and marriage breakdown was revealed last week, the scandal has gone from bad to worse with increasing concerns raised about the potential misuse of taxpayer funds.
National Party MPs, who previously believed that Joyce could survive the scandal, are now holding discussions on how to get Joyce to resign and plan to “formally tap” him on the shoulder, according to ABC reports.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Michael McCormack, who twice missed out on becoming deputy leader, has been named as the “overwhelming favourite” to replace Mr Joyce, according to the Herald Sun.
But the National Party, which has only rolled a leader once in its history, are uncertain how to proceed and there is no clear consensus over how to handle the Joyce matter. However, the party have called for an orderly transition to a new leader with sources close to McCormack telling the paper that he would only accept the job if Joyce resigned.
Nine’s political editor Chris Uhlmann said that although the National Party rarely get rid of its leaders, he “wouldn’t be surprised if he was gone by the end of the week”.
“His future is now in the hands of the 21 very nervous National Party members,” the political editor said.
Veterans’ Affairs Minister Michael McCormack has been named as the “overwhelming favourite” to replace Joyce.
The pressure has ramped up amid fears Joyce was losing his key support base in Queensland.
Admired for his authenticity and credibility, many in the National Party believe the reputation, which earned him so many votes, has now been lost.
Former Nationals leader Warren Truss said on Tuesday night Mr Joyce continuing as leader of the Nationals was “a matter for his parliamentary colleagues”.
Truss said he believe Joyce had had “enormous capabilities”, but he said the situation needed to be resolved “constructively and quickly so that the business of government can proceed”.
Joyce denied breaching the ministerial code of conduct, which says frontbenchers cannot employ "close" relatives or partners or get them work in other ministerial offices "without the prime minister's express approval".
"When she worked in my office, she was not my partner. When she worked in Matt Canavan's office, she was not my partner. And Damian Drum was not a minister," Joyce said.
But new revelations by Fairfax Media on Tuesday found that Joyce spent 50 nights in Canberra charged to the taxpayers when Parliament wasn’t sitting, significantly more nights than any other Turnbull government minister, including Treasurer Scott Morrison, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
The publication reports the official expense records show the embattled politician claimed $16,690 in travel allowance for out-of-session nights in the first nine months of 2017.
There is no suggestion that Joyce claimed anything outside the rules that govern MPs entitlements.
Joyce’s office responded to the claims saying his stays in Canberra were because his electorate does not have permanent commonwealth offices like capital cities.
“It should be expected that the Deputy Prime Minister would use the Canberra Office more frequently than those Ministers who have capital city bases,” a spokesperson told Fairfax.
Joyce is due to be acting Prime Minister next week when Malcolm Turnbull travels to the United States.