Australian Deputy Prime Minster Barnaby Joyce, right, listens to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, centre, during a session in the Australian Parliament in Canberra. Photo / AP
Australian Deputy Prime Minster Barnaby Joyce, right, listens to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, centre, during a session in the Australian Parliament in Canberra. Photo / AP
Either Malcolm Turnbull or Barnaby Joyce has to go to end the dysfunction at the top of Australia's Government, Labor believes.
The Prime Minister and his deputy have exchanged a public war of words over Joyce's extra-marital affair, a situation Labor frontbencher Richard Marles says is unprecedented. "We've clearly nowgot a totally dysfunctional state of affairs at the top of this government," he told Sky News. "It would seem to me Barnaby has to go but I know one thing: one of them has to."
Announcing a ban on ministers having sex with staffers, Turnbull last week said Joyce's affair with former media advisor Vikki Campion was a "shocking error of judgment" causing "a world of woe". Joyce said the remarks were "inept" and "unnecessary". The pair met for more than an hour on Saturday to discuss the public spat, but Turnbull reportedly emerged frustrated that the Nationals leader still didn't seem to "get it".
Nationals MPs are spending the week in their electorates before meeting on February 26.
