A rift between Australia’s leader and his deputy is widening, with Barnaby Joyce describing criticisms made by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about his conduct during an extramarital affair as “inept” and “unnecessary.”
“They caused further harm,” Deputy Prime Minister Joyce said Friday of Turnbull’s comments. He spoke a day after his leader accused him of making a “shocking error of judgment” and causing “terrible hurt and humiliation” to his family and new partner after media reports of his affair with a former staffer emerged this month.
The war of words between Australia’s two most senior lawmakers risks undermining the ruling Liberal-National coalition government, which already trails in opinion polls ahead of elections due by next year. While Turnbull’s Liberals are the dominant force in the partnership, it relies on support from Joyce’s rural-based Nationals to govern.
Read more on the Barnaby Joyce scandal and Turnbull’s reaction
The deputy prime minister position is traditionally given to the Nationals leader in coalition government arrangements between the parties. Turnbull on Thursday told parliament that Joyce wouldn’t serve as acting prime minister during Turnbull’s trip to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump next week and would instead be taking leave.
Turnbull also on Thursday announced an overhaul of the code of conduct for government ministers and barred them from sexual relations with their staff, citing Joyce’s indiscretions as the trigger for the change.
While the prime minister has been piling pressure on Joyce, including in another press conference Friday when he said his deputy had been considering his position, he can’t force him to quit and only a vote of National lawmakers could force Joyce out.
No Nationals lawmakers have publicly asked for Joyce’s resignation. He said Friday that his party was not for turning.
“There is nothing that we dislike more than implied intervention into the party processes of the National Party,” Joyce said. “We are an independent unit and make our own decisions.
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