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Vicki Campion’s judgement

If you are a politician who has, for your whole career, deliberately courted the cameras for your own purposes, you cannot expect them to just turn up when it’s convenient.

Here’s a tip, Barnaby.  If you want privacy, stop giving interviews about your private life.  Stop with the fluff pieces in magazines with wife and daughters, moralising to others about family values when you were already having an affair.  Stop with the photo shoots with a tea towel showing how domesticated you are in your new digs provided free of charge.  Stop throwing your new partner under the bus by questioning the paternity of her baby and blaming her for the latest attention-seeking money-grabbing exploit.  None of it is necessary.  We don’t need to know.

For a person who was employed as a media adviser, Vicki Campion shows a complete lack of judgement in how to handle the situation.

The leaked snippet of next week’s tell all show on Channel 7 shows a tearful Vicki saying “I couldn’t help it.  You can’t help who you fall in love with.”

Oh yes you can sunshine.  And what’s more, regardless of how you ‘feel’, you are in control of your actions.

If you have ‘feelings’ for someone who already has a partner, and those ‘feelings’ are reciprocated, then the decent thing to do is to terminate the first relationship before you have unprotected sex with someone else.

A drunken moment of lust is one thing.  Accusations of drunken lecherous behaviour from Barnaby abound.  However, an ongoing workplace affair that is known to colleagues, the deliberate action to cut communication with his family, the unprotected sex, are not some glorious expression of romantic love.  It is total hedonism.  It shows cruel disregard for a family and the inevitable public humiliation they would endure.

Barnaby took a week of personal leave in February to allow “current controversies to blow over”.  Now he’s off until August because of the backlash from their latest interview.

Barnaby and Vicki would have us see them as victims.  The promo of the interview suggests Vicki will tell us that she faced political pressure not to have the baby.  That begs the question, from who?  How many people knew she was pregnant and when?  Did they know when she was gifted a job in Damian Drum’s office in August through to October when she went on “stress leave”?

Drum said: “I suppose what you have to ask is when does a casual relationship become a regular relationship? When does that become a formal relationship? When does that become a girlfriend?”

Ummm….having a child together might be a clue.

Relationships break down.  The way that is handled says a great deal about the integrity and compassion of the people involved.

As for Ms Campion’s judgement – Barnaby?  Seriously?

30 comments

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  1. Yvonne Robertson

    I imagine that Barnaby is actually on leave looking for a new job where he does bugger all and gets paid squillions for his address book and insider’s knowledge.

    I despise the rorting which takes place – finding jobs for the media adviser in order to make it appear there is nothing going on at a higher salary and that this politician – Deputy Prime Minister no less – is not morally corrupt and hypocritical at the core but other than that, I have always known Barnaby to be a liar and a rogue and really could care less about the moralising in regard to personal scandal and private infidelities. The media grab these sorts of issues, knowing the country to be addicted to soap and to avoid filling their space with any meaningful critique of government performance.

    However, I do imagine this will be the perfect ‘happy ever after’ ending, where Barnaby gets the job and the LNP gets rid of an embarrassment and can pretend with conservative hand on heart ‘sincerity’ that Labor was the only party to ever have had problems with dual citizenship and that the leader of the Nationals – the one time Deputy Prime Minister never aided and abetted water theft from the Murray Darling.

  2. helvityni

    Molan laughs when the talk turns to asylum seekers…
    Turnbull , our PM, calls Opposition leader ‘unbelieva-bill’…
    Bishop is proud of her ‘stare’…

    My ears stop working when I see Dutton , Morrison, Michaelia, Barnaby, Abbott et others… ( hearing loss no doubt caused by Michaelia’s shouting)

    I would not waste beautiful words like ‘ integrity’ and ‘compassion’ when referring to this lot…

  3. Christopher

    No one is asking how BJ could actually have leave when he’s only been a legitimate member of parliament since the recent by election. His service before that was invalid, illegitimate as he was a kiwi.

    Crooked as

  4. cjward2017

    Do you write for the sake of something to do or is it because you want the glory and status of the cheap scribblers of women’s pages or Channel 7? AIM has become boring of late, while the country groans under the pressure of underemployment, unemployment, population pressure in urban areas, cities becoming gross parodies of themselves, the growth in urban crime, the hidden corruption and crimes of big business and government, 20 days of petrol supplies, a distinct desire to privatise everything. You make me more than sick because, after a life devoted to my country, the words “banana republic” spring readily to mind.

  5. Wun Farlung

    I am assuming that the beetrooter will be getting paid leave.
    Meanwhile the average worker that is lucky enough to be permanantly employed and able to afford the loss of income gets 4 weeks…hang on and look over there Michaelia is being naughty again

  6. Kaye Lee

    I agree this is a trivial matter. And great to hear Cash will be forced to hand over documents and give oral evidence. These things do not help address climate change or homelessness or inequality, but we must continue to hold politicians to account for their actions.

  7. Zathras

    This is only about the money and nothing else.

    The stories about Barnaby’s exploits were an open secret around Canberra but journalists were forbidden to report on them under threat of dismissal.

    Murdoch must have decided that Joyce would become a liability before the next election and that the impending birth would cause the story to come out regardless so he instructed/released one of his journalists to break the story.

    It was done in the kindest possible way (to Joyce) with no mention of the allegations of the other staffers he cavorted with or his well-known drunken womanising but this seems not good enough for Barnaby.

    His political career is finished – he’s of no further use to Gina Reinhardt and just good for making noise so he’s decided to cash in while he can. Chances are he won’t hold his seat at the next election or even get pre-selection.

    Like the conflict-of-interest Gwebar property he said he was going to sell 5 years ago (but still hasn’t) it’s an easy way to make a buck, considering his other options are disappearing.

    People say he’s the best Retail Politician we have but at least now we know that his Recommended Retail Price is $150K.

  8. Josephus

    The man is revolting and so is his new partner, but none of that matters . What DOES matter is that he has not been sacked, that Greens Senators resigned at once for being duals, yet this brazen, boorish man was allowed to hang on and on, did not do his job properly, lied about the wetlands and coal dust, cheated on entitlements, did not care about water rights, nor about tortured sheep. This man had to have 5 children, too – for heaven’s sake.

  9. Helen Jennings

    Kaye Lee….perfectly stated. I despise the hypocracy of these 2 self absorbed, narcissistic, greedy, attention seeking fools. My heart goes out to their poor child (who will hopefully not be anything like his parents) and to the ex Mrs Joyce and her daughters. They are the epitome of class and dignity.
    It angers me that ppl of such low ethical and moral fibre as the new publicity seeking parents get a free ride and give no indication of remorse or regret for their behaviour. And for the ppl who support them…they are all of the same ilk…disgusting.

  10. Keitha Granville

    cjward2017 – sure there are much more important problems facing the country tan the personal life of a backbencher. BUT, he wasn’t a backbencher when this first aired, he was our Deputy Prime Minister. He was privvy to the running of the country, to all manner of issues, and his integrity and ethics is seriously questioned with the appalling personal behaviour. It’s the measure of a person – how they handle their private life reflects on their work life, and BJ is not the kind of person we want in charge of the country. It’s fortunate that is no longer the case, but what does it say about the government ? They all knew what was going on long before we did, and yet he was retained. He should have been dumped at the first opportunity.
    This government has no moral compass.

  11. Kaye Lee

    “Cash will apply to have the subpoena set aside before a 8 June case management hearing. So we have a subpoena but no final answer about whether Cash will have to front court, pending that challenge.”

    Press conference from Cash at 1pm. How much are we spending on her legal bills to try, yet again, to avoid telling the truth?

  12. paul walter

    Cash is exposed for all time. Borderline personality disorder. What a nutter.

  13. Glenn Barry

    Kaye Lee, you have a cunning sense of humour, you used terms like integrity and compassion in reference to Barnaby, and judgement regarding Vicki’s choice…
    I smiled 😀

  14. OPPOSE THE MAJOR PARTIES

    paul walter
    ‘Cash is exposed for all time. Borderline personality disorder. What a nutter.’

    If were not offensive to American Indian females and Celtic women to draw a similarity to them and Cash, I would describe Cash as a ‘banshee’.

  15. diannaart

    Barnaby? Trivial?

    He is just as much a lying, greedy, conniving bloodsucker as is Michaelia Cash.

    QUEENSLAND Senator Barnaby Joyce says the nation can no longer afford paid maternity leave and business would stop hiring females if forced into it.

    Senator Joyce said Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s $42billion economic stimulus package had drained the coffers and paid maternity leave was now a casualty of the nation’s newly acquired debt.

    The Productivity Commission last year proposed a $450million-a-year paid parental leave scheme that would pay mothers 18 weeks’ leave at the minimum wage. The commission’s final report is due within weeks.

    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/maternity-leave-too-costly/news-story/3dc3e6e6fbe8c81c61196db22f590630

  16. Jaquix

    I wonder if Turnbull’s been to see Kerry Stokes to try to get him to pull the show? Hope not, Im looking forward to it. Want to hear every self-seeking word that slips from the lips of this well-matched pair. Will provide endless entertainment for a long time, right up to the next election, and HUGE embarrassment for this lousy government.

  17. Kaye Lee

    Barnaby Joyce, 2012…..

    “If you go to the core of the issue, a child has the right to know who their biological parents are. They have the right to know who both their mother and their father are: who the people were who were the component parts of the initial stages of their life.

    Stability in structure that confirms and reaffirms both a mother and father figure is the best environment for a child to grow up in—and, the closer that mother and father figure is to the genetic make-up of the child, the better it is.

    The ramifications of going into that institution of marriage, which is at the centre of what the family is, are way beyond merely a statement of what a person wants and desires.

    It is also really important to understand that it is just another reality of the world that you cannot have everything just because you want it. Everybody has to make sacrifices. We all want so much, but marriage itself is a statement. It is not the gaining of rights but the acquiescing of rights.

    The reality in life is that there are always things that you cannot have. There are things that I cannot have.

    To be honest, I have never seen any person who is happy with the fact that they have had an unsuccessful marriage. I have always seen people who wished that their marriage had worked out, who wished it had been better, who wished that they could have had their time again.”

    http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2Fd1b86af2-b8ee-4367-ad53-c5359a072920%2F0198;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2Fd1b86af2-b8ee-4367-ad53-c5359a072920%2F0000%22

  18. johno

    I wonder if Barnaby will be on the receiving end of another giant cheque from Gina. Maybe he would accept it next time.

  19. paul walter

    How many would that make?

  20. Shevill Mathers

    It beggars belief that these morally bankrupt people ever get elected and/or employed at any level, let alone the top of the heap.
    It reveals just how weak and desperate our PM is by turning a blind eye to the goings on that was evident to many in senior office-and this is the quality of the people who have been elected to run the country-beats me every time how they ever get elected in the first instance. The BJ affair and forthcoming TV soapie, will hopefully convince many voters to make better choices at the next federal election. The LNP tried to put themselves above the Rudd/Gillard government, they have failed in spades.

  21. John O'Callaghan

    I would have watched the bonker and the bonkess on tv next week but unfortunately i have to get some root canal work done,then i am going to watch some paint dry,then im going home to soak in a bath of Hydrochloric Acid!

  22. Glenn Barry

    John, curious co-incidence that, I’m scheduled to smash each and every one of my toes with a ball pein hammer – should be a real hootin’ ‘n a hollerin’ time

  23. johno

    Public private, public private. Where are we now, private or public.

  24. Kaye Lee

    ‘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’ says Vicki.

    This is sounding more and more like the Jackson/Lawler interview. What did she think would happen when she screwed the married Deputy PM? $150,000 might sound like a lot of money to Vicki. It’s significantly less than the annual pay cut that their affair cost Barnaby. Was it always about the money? Will the love last if Barnaby loses his seat? Would Barnaby get some cattle to go with the hat and he and Vicki head out to Gwabegar to farm that “mongrel land” he bought? Because I don’t think he’ll get a job with Gina whose son John tweeted ‘Time to go, Barnaby, and don’t come running to Hancock for a job after the people wise up to you’.

  25. Glenn Barry

    Kaye Lee, I wonder if those sentiments are shared by Gina the Grotesque herself, is she not still estranged from her children because of the whole abuse of the inheritance trust issue?

    Perhaps someone should give Barnaby a thorough examination for either a best before or a definitive expiry date stamp, because it looks like the vehicle is about to pull over, kick him to the red dust on the soft shoulder and drive off at speed – he’s outlived his usefulness

  26. paul walter

    Victimhood/ entitlement is reaching epidemic proportion through some sections of oz society. Strangely this phenomenon is observed most fully in the upper echelons.

  27. Paul

    Did i hear this correctly this morning on ABC Breakfast tv when bluesuit and la trivia were talking to Barry Insider about the Barney and Vikki reveal all this weekend …. it was suggested that Vikki said she was “pressured” to have an abortion by persons unnamed. Now THAT in my humble opinion is interesting, but of course she wouldn’t dare name anyone would she.

  28. Zathras

    There should be no more cheques from Gina to Barnaby anymore – he’s no longer of any use to her and is now delegated to a slow exit via the backbench.
    No doubt there will be others scrambling for her financial sponsorship to fill in that gap.

    That’s why an easy $150K will come in handy about now. Maybe they can put it toward their son’s future therapy costs.

    I bet Barnaby’s estranged wife could pull in a lot more with her side of the grubby story.

  29. Barry Adams

    Zathras, Barnaby must be laughing. $150k in the pocket to gossip with a journalist who has been lapping on his dirty laundry for a month or two. You’re right, his wife could profit too, but maybe she is above the media’s game. Anyway, as long as no important policy issues are solved the media will win the day and that’s the main thing in their eyes. The phrase ‘ship of fools’ comes to mind.

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