Australia - Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce Claims $150k Interview Was ‘Vikki’s Idea’ (Video)

Mr. Barnaby Joyce, the disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister who stepped down briefly after an affair with his former staffer resulted in a baby (see our related coverage) is back in the news after Australians were quick to show their outrage after it became known that the Joyce-Campion couple have been paid some $150,000 for an upcoming tell-all interview with a television channel.

Many Australians claim this is a new low for politics given that Mr. Joyce is still paid some $200,000 per year in taxpayer’s money for his role in parliament.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/auspol?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#auspol</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Barnaby_Joyce?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Barnaby_Joyce</a> shared from voters <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ausvotes2018?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ausvotes2018</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/votethismobout?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#votethismobout</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LNP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LNP</a> <a href="https://t.co/2id3R9oFh0">pic.twitter.com/2id3R9oFh0</a></p>&mdash; DameFreeradicalone2u (@freeradicalone) <a href="https://twitter.com/freeradicalone/status/1000660776128991234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Mr. Joyce commented: “We tried for privacy. In the last fortnight, we’ve had drones over our house. We’ve had paparazzi waiting for us outside Armidale airport. We’ve had people following us, we’ve tried just burning this out and that didn’t work.”

Related coverage: https://thegoldwater.com/news/19114-Australia-Deputy-PM-Resigns-After-Sex-Scandal

When asked about the outrage of several of his countrymen over him getting paid a hefty sum for the interview, Mr Joyce stated: “Remember there are other people in this interview, being Vikki and Seb, so if it was just an interview with me as a politician, sure, I am not going to charge for that.”

“But that is not what they wanted. They wanted an interview obviously to get Vikki’s side of the story and like most mothers she said, ‘Seeing as I am being screwed over and there are drones and everything over my house in the last fortnight, paparazzi waiting for me, if everybody else is making money then I am going to make money out of it’.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Strong comments from frontbencher Kelly O&#39;Dwyer on <a href="https://twitter.com/RNBreakfast?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RNBreakfast</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/hamishNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hamishNews</a>, regarding Barnaby Joyce&#39;s reported $150,000 payment for an interview with a commercial network <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/auspol?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#auspol</a><br><br>&quot;I think most Australians are pretty disgusted by it.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/7iUNBqvWew">pic.twitter.com/7iUNBqvWew</a></p>&mdash; Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattDoran91/status/1001221364387213312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 28, 2018</a></blockquote>

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Of course the issue was also raised with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during an interview on Tasmanian radio station LAFM: “It has been very widely criticised, I will no doubt have the opportunity to talk about it with Barnaby privately but it is certainly not a course of action I would have encouraged him to take it. I will put it that way.”

Source:

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/barnaby-breaks-silence-on-interview-controversy/news-story/80177e39f16b98484fbacf4c8b8abc0e