Australia Deputy PM apologises for calling PM Morrison ‘hypocrite and liar’

By Lidia Kelly

(Reuters) – Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce apologised on Saturday to Prime Minister Scott Morrison for calling him “a hypocrite and a liar” and stated that Morrison had rejected his provide to resign.

Morrison stated in a press release that he accepted Joyce’s apology.

In a leaked message the deputy prime minister, who heads the junior companion in Morrison’s coalition authorities, stated final yr that he had by no means trusted Morrison.

“He’s a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that’s over a very long time,” Joyce wrote to a former staffer of Morrison’s Liberal Occasion who had alleged sexual assault by a fellow staffer.

Joyce’s remarks additional shake the political place of Morrison, who should name a federal election by Might. His approval rankings https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-pms-ratings-take-hit-months-away-election-poll-shows-2022-01-17 have fallen over his dealing with of a Omicron-driven coronavirus outbreak.

“I wish to apologise to the prime minister … I ought to have by no means written the textual content that I did,” Joyce instructed a information convention. “My view from the backbench in regards to the prime minister was based mostly on assumption and commentary, not from a one-on-one working relationship.”

Joyce grew to become deputy prime minister in 2021 because the chief of the Nationwide Occasion, not as Morrison’s appointee. Joyce’s celebration, which has the facility to take away him as its chief, didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Morrison responded, “Relationships change over time. Politicians are human beings too. All of us have our frailties and none of us are excellent.”

Joyce’s textual content message, first reported on Friday night time by 9 Newspapers, was despatched by a 3rd celebration to former Liberal Occasion staffer Brittany Higgins. She had alleged https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-politics-rape-idUSKBN2AJ12Z she was sexually assaulted in Parliament Home in March 2019.

The political commotion comes simply days after an argument about an alleged trade between senior Liberal Occasion members making derogatory remarks about Morrison.

Opposition Labor chief Anthony Albanese stated that it was “untenable” for Joyce to proceed as deputy prime minister.

“I couldn’t care much less that the Liberal Occasion members all don’t like every,” Albanese stated at a briefing. “What I do care about is the implications of a authorities that’s dysfunctional.”

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Modifying by William Mallard)