Australian Politics: Barnaby Joyce and a story that’s stranger than fiction
What you are about to read is a true story — and the names have not been changed because Barnaby Joyce’s innocence requires no protection
I’d like to kick off by asking a simple and probably self-evidently answered question —will there ever be a day again where you or I won’t open a newspaper (well, fire up the IPad actually) and not shake our collective heads in wonder at another story that could come straight out of the next Netflix must-binge-watch show?
Clearly, the answer is no, point in case — Deputy PM and National Party Leader, MP Barnaby Joyce.
More on him soon.
The wonders of the interweb and the expediency of digital comms has meant we hear about things…all kinds of things…that we might never have heard about in the past.
And we hear about them quick, like yesterday kinda quick.
And they are the things that in some ways are actually not that odd when you step back from them, but when framed through the particular circumstances, are OUTRAGEOUS.
Enter: Barnaby Joyce (there he is, akubra and all, just like Crocodile Dundee…well, nothing like him — more like Paul Hogan. But that’s another story.) Australia’s deputy Prime Minister (ie the second top job — think VEEP if you’re reading this in the US) and also the leader of one of the Federal Coalition governing parties, the Nationals.
Staunchly conservative, not scared to have his say, sometimes a little barmy-sounding, but in reality a cool operator who has clawed his way to near the top of Australia’s political heap.
A heap he now sits on precariously for a RANGE of reasons, the most pressing of which is leaving his wife and family to shack up with a (pregnant-to-him) staffer who might have been parachuted into some rather highly-paid roles (which, it must be said, she is potentially suitably qualified for) and who might be connected to some Joyce expenses that don’t pass the pub (or parliamentary expense allowance) test.
(You can read more about it care of James Massola and Adam Gartrell in the Sydney Morning Herald.)
Hmmm.
…it’s the hypocritical sanctimonious turpitude of Barnaby Joyce that makes my brain boil and froth out my ears a bit (not a pretty sight).
As a dear mate wrote on Facebook…(I hope she won’t mind me republishing her thoughts!)
“I’m truly stumped trying to work out what that one more straw could be.
Because it’s got to go a step further than
+Cheating on wife and kids
+With much younger staffer
+while getting political milage out of your marriage and family
+citing your experience of married bliss to argue against marriage equality
+And a pregnancy
+And moving in with new lover
+In an undeclared free apartment gift from an influence weilding associate
+And objecting to said lover being expected to leave your staff
+Until she gets a higher paid position.
+Created especially for her by your worried colleagues
+With whom you’ve been acting distracted and irrational due to all the above
+And then…”
Before you jump in, I am not slamming Barnaby Joyce for leaving what one can only assume was not the marriage and family set up for him (if only he had read @TheAngryTherapist piece…too late now). As the child of a marriage that did not work out for my mother, I am the first person to encourage anyone in an unhappy relationship to CONSIDER ending it as one of several options to make their life better.
No, it’s the hypocritical sanctimonious turpitude of Barnaby Joyce that makes my brain boil and froth out my ears a bit (not a pretty sight).
It’s the pure straight-out-of-Hollywood scandal of him cheating on his wife with a staffer while BARKING out his opposition to marriage equality on the grounds of the sanctity of marriage. Joyce even went so far as to make the outlandish claim that Asia would see Australia as ‘decadent’ for allowing marriage equality — like they would stop trading with us or coming as tourists.
You couldn’t make this shit up.
Oh, you don’t need to. It’s real.
And shit’s about to get real for Barnaby Joyce, who from the citizenship fiasco to pork barrelling in his electorate to expense claim issues to his latest relationship misstep is now being questioned by Nationals colleagues, who say is position is becoming untenable.
It became untenable a long time ago.
And for those who believe he should be left alone, it’s his private stuff, I get this to a degree…and yet the rest of the world eagerly snaps up all manner of juicy goss about celebrities. Anyone in the public eye, and thus often receiving some kind of benefit as a consequence (usually $$), is fair game so long as what is published is true.
(Michelle Grattan captures the ‘public interest’ argument really well in a piece for the Conversation.)
This little story has more to run yet, and so it should.
Reap what ye may sow, Mr Joyce.
Or if you believe in karma, that bus is just around the next corner…
