Q&A panel to Barnaby Joyce: “Staying quiet would be a good idea now”
<p>They tried to talk about anything else but in the end, the ABC’s Q&A was always going to have to tackle the Barnaby Joyce affair that has beset Australian politics for the past two weeks.</p>
<p>It did take 20 minutes to get to the subject but when they did, the feeling was unanimous.</p>
<p>Barnaby: Just stop talking, mate.</p>
<p>The Q&A panel consisting of Deputy Opposition leader Tanya Plibersek, Greens leader Richard Di Natale, Minister for Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity Angus Taylor, British author Kamila Shamsie and the Daily Telegraph journalist who broke the Barnaby Joyce story Sharri Markson all were stunned with Joyce’s comments made on the weekend.</p>
<p>Despite resigning a week ago and asking for privacy, the former deputy PM had on the weekend given an interview claiming there was a “grey area” over whether he is the biological father of partner Vikki Campion’s baby.</p>
<p>Both sides of politics on the panel were agreement that Joyce should just stop talking. </p>
<p>“I have to say, having read his comments over the weekend, I was lost for words,” said Di Natale.</p>
<p>“I thought it was a particularly low thing to do, to accuse somebody of that.</p>
<p>“And at this point I think there’s the welfare of former staffer, family with four kids, a child and I think we should just let them get on and sort out what is a very difficult situation.”</p>
<p><img width="437" height="246" src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/70880088f590fa191ab3b4a3eec9efef" alt="“I think staying quiet would be good idea,” Ms Plibersek said. Picture: ABC" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p>
<p>Plibersek concurred, saying, “I think if I were advising Barnaby Joyce, I would think staying quiet would be good idea.”</p>
<p>“He’s feeding the hand that bites him at the moment,” she added.</p>
<p>When an audience member challenged Markson on why Joyce didn’t deserve the same level of privacy “surrounding his private life and offered the same courtesy you believe the targets of Michaelia Cash’s rant does”, Markson said they were two completely different topics.</p>
<p>“In the one instance with Michaelia Cash, she threatened to name young women who are the subject of rumour when nothing had been proven at all and they are not public figures. And it’s not even true as far as I’m aware,” Markson said.</p>
<p><img width="466" height="262" src="http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/edb2671b1a8fbc952a07b8274fc355bc" alt="The Michaelia Cash topic was rumour. Barnaby Joyce was fact, Sharri Markson said. Picture: ABC" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p>
<p>“In the other instance, you had the Deputy PM of the country ... who has conservative family values, has campaigned against same-sex marriage, has campaigned against a vaccine because it might make women more promiscuous, a Deputy PM who has left his wife and four daughters for a media adviser who is now pregnant.</p>
<p>“Not only that, but then authorised, so he signed off on the creation of new jobs for her with two politicians within his own party. While living for six months in a free rental from a National Party donor. The two things couldn’t be more different.”</p>
<p>Markson said added, “when he was Deputy PM, deserved every ounce of scrutiny that we in the media apply to him. His family didn’t and we were very respectful to his wife and his four daughters. We never once hassled them”.</p>
<p>“In that role he deserved every ounce of scrutiny and politicians, when they go into this job, they know they need to be accountable to voters,” she said.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr">Why did Mr Joyce not deserve a level of privacy? <a href="https://twitter.com/SharriMarkson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SharriMarkson</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/kamilashamsie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kamilashamsie</a> respond <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/QandA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#QandA</a> <a href="https://t.co/hpryFT6hOP">pic.twitter.com/hpryFT6hOP</a></p>
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) <a href="https://twitter.com/QandA/status/970615143204704257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2018</a></blockquote>
<p>Shamsie observed the scrutiny was fair game “if you’re going to make a big deal about being all ‘family values’, then you’re setting yourself up for someone to come at you”.</p>
<p>“It’s very striking to me that in Britain Jeremy Corbyn’s wife is never seen with him. They made a conscious effort that he’s not going to do that. He’s not going to use his marriage or wife, she will not hold his hand or make tea for interviewers or do anything of that sort.</p>
<p>“So if someone is doing that, if they’re putting themselves forward in that way, then I’m afraid they are opening themselves up and their private life to scrutiny.”</p>
<p>Host Tony Jones asked now that Joyce has stepped down, is it time to leave him alone.</p>
<p>Plibersek said while people have a right to their private lives, “they don’t have a right to spend taxpayers’ money in any way they choose without accounting for it. They don’t have a right to fail to disclose gifts from donors, That’s our [the Labor Party’s] only interest.</p>
<p>“The Labor Party has not been interested in his personal life. I feel sorry for everybody involved,” she added, suggesting that Joyce might want to stop giving interviews.</p>
