Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has singled out Malcolm Turnbull, who heralded the infamous ministerial ban as the beginning of the end of his premiership.
The controversial policy was announced after Joyce’s extramarital affair with former employee Vikki Campion and resulting pregnancy came to light in 2018.
Mr Turnbull, who failed to remove the Nationals leader as deputy prime minister, publicly condemned Mr Joyce’s behavior before announcing the banging ban by blocking ministers from having sexual relations with staffers.
“I remember seeing (Mr Turnbull announcing the policy) on television… and I asked, ‘What is this dipstick doing?'” Mr Joyce said.
Barnaby Joyce’s affair with Vikki Campion led to Malcolm Turnbull introducing a ‘bonking ban’
Mr Turnbull publicly condemned Mr Joyce’s behavior before announcing the banging ban by banning ministers from having sexual relations with staffers
The comments were made in a new Sky News documentary, Liberals in Power, Part One, which exposes the infighting and tensions during the federal Liberal Party’s nine years in power.
Although Mr Joyce resigned as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister shortly after the affair came to light, he said his departure also confirmed the downfall of Mr Turnbull himself.
“I remember saying to Peter Dutton, ‘Look, once I’m gone as Deputy Prime Minister, Turnbull will be gone in three months,’” he told interviewer Chris Kenny.
“This is an incredibly bombastic selfish statement, but it’s the truth (that) when he lost me, he lost too.”
Mr Turnbull, who did not appear in the documentary, would survive a leak from then Home Secretary Mr Dutton later that year on August 21, before being rolled out a week later and replaced by then Treasurer Scott Morrison.
Mr Joyce and his wife of 22 years and mother of his four daughters, Natalie Abberfield, have divorced. Mr Joyce has two sons with Ms Campion, with the couple exchanging vows on Sunday.
Mr Joyce and Mrs Campion tied the knot this weekend
Mr Joyce gave Mr Turnbull a scathing overview of his leadership, saying he fell into a rut that left him an “ineffective”, “paranoid” and a “distracted” leader.
“They forget they’re the prime minister, they think they’re the president, and then they think they’re kind of running there for life and not getting into discussions,” he said.
‘Their group of friends is getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller and they listen too much to too few people.
“That’s what happened to Malcolm.”
Scott Morrison defended the bonk ban as ‘the right thing to do’.
Speaking to Kenny, Mr Morrison defended the bonk ban as ‘the right thing to do’.
“I took a principled stand on this and it was the right stand… Ministers should not have sex with his staff,” he said.
Federal Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds, who voted for Morrison against Dutton, said Morrison was able to unite the coalition after a tumultuous period.
“He did, somewhat unexpectedly, but he did,” she said.
“I don’t think anyone else could have done it in these circumstances.”