Ew. Three years after resigning from Parliament leadership, Barnaby Joyce has returned to his position as Deputy PM.
Joyce was sworn in at Government House as Deputy Prime Minister after defeating Michael McCormack in the leadership re-election just this morning.
This decision comes a year after Joyce previously attempted to regain the position.
He was joined by his partner Vicki Campion and his two sons. ScoMo also made an appearance via live stream as he undergoes quarantine.
The politician is no stranger to controversy. He stepped down from leadership in 2018 after his affair with former staffer and now partner, Vicki Campion went public.
The affair led to then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull introducing the “Bonk Ban”, which made having sex with staff against code of conduct.
He also has sexual harassment claims under his belt which have yet to be investigated. Interesting.
At a time when Australian women have been expressing unprecedented levels of disillusionment and loss of faith in our parliament and political system the Government responds by…making Barnaby Joyce our Deputy Prime Minister. Honestly 🤦♀️
— Kate Ellis (@KateEllis22) June 21, 2021
Joyce is also vocally against climate change policy, and has previously said he was willing to vote against any government legislation that costs jobs as a result of halting the effects of climate change.
On Monday, he spoke of his desire to move forward from his past, saying:
“I don’t want to dwell on the personal, except to say, hopefully one learns from their mistakes and makes a better person of themselves.”
With Barnaby back, that’s 2 men in Cabinet with unresolved sexual misconduct claims against them. If you ever wondered how srsly Gov takes the parly culture review, the man whose behaviour led to the bonk ban is now Dep PM. The Coalition’s problem with women just got worse#auspol
— Larissa Waters (@larissawaters) June 21, 2021