Just about everybody knows the ‘beetrooter’ story of Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion now that it has been plastered over the newspapers for months1 and has been on television, including with a $150,000 interview given by Joyce and Campion. This interview was granted as a way to derail invasions of their desired privacy2. However, the large price-tag makes one suspicious of their motives. Joyce’s desire for a cash injection is understandable given his demotion and the arrival of a baby3.
Joyce always seems to blame someone other than himself for his predicament, initially slurring Campion by labelling the paternity of the baby as a ‘grey area’, and that the decision to give the interview was Campion’s. One online wag said that Campion has been under a bus so often she should be able to qualify as a diesel mechanic4.
A more recent development relates to the legislation just passed by the New South Wales (NSW) parliament. This legislation is to keep religious nutters from harassing women as they attend a clinic which offers abortions, by creating a 150 metre exclusion zone within which they are not allowed to protest5. This legislation is similar to that passed by the Australian Capital Territory to prevent similar harassment of women attending a similar clinic in Canberra6. Queensland is set to follow suit with exclusion zone legislation of their own. Barnaby Joyce has stated that he was against the NSW legislation and was “allowed, entitled and obligated” to lobby his state counterparts against passing the legislation7. This indicates that he believes it is acceptable to harass women at a most difficult time in their lives. Fortunately, he failed to sway his colleagues
Now, Barnaby Joyce has had a confrontation with a photographer who was taking photographs from the other side of the road, as Joyce came out of a Catholic church (oh, the irony) in Armidale, NSW. Joyce crossed the road and according to the photographer, raised his fist, and would have hit him if the photographer hadn’t walked away. Joyce repeatedly asks the photographer his name and for whom he works8. Maybe Joyce would like an exclusion zone around his church. One rule for the religious and another for the rest of us.
Joyce is one of the most self-absorbed, thuggish, hypocritical members of parliament, and the sooner he leaves it, the better.
Sources
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/not-horizontal-folk-dancing/
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/29/barnaby-joyce-granted-extended-leave-after-row-over-150000-interview
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/the-entitlement-of-barnaby-joyce/
- https://twitter.com/JohnWren1950
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-08/abortion-clinic-safe-access-laws-pass/9846964
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/disingenuous-christians/
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jun/07/barnaby-joyce-i-am-entitled-to-lobby-against-safe-zones-for-abortion-clinics
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-10/barnaby-joyce-films-confrotation-photographer-outside-church/9855134
