Doorstop: Malcom Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce; Ministerial Code of Conduct

TANYA PLIBERSEK MP, DEPUTY LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION: Well thanks very much for coming out this morning. It’s such a great pleasure to be here to support my friend the Premier Jay Weatherill in his bid for re-election. Jay has been an extraordinary Premier, I have known him for many years, first as a housing minister who was always prepared to stand up for the best interests of South Australians, and you see that even more now that he is Premier. It's only been Jay Weatherill that's been prepared to stand up to Canberra when Malcolm Turnbull has cut $210 million from South Australian schools over the next two years alone. The Liberals here have been very keen to back in their mates in Canberra, they haven’t raised a peep against these $210 million cuts. The Nick Xenophon team, well Nick Xenophon himself voted for these cuts. Nick Xenophon and his team in Canberra voted 57 times to cut $210 million from South Australian schools. In fact Nick Xenophon wrote to principals saying that he would absolutely not back these cuts, and then he did the exact opposite. And don't forget, Sarah Hanson-Young was prepared to vote for these cuts too. The only reason that the Greens didn't vote for the Education cuts was because the NSW Greens rolled Sarah Hanson-Young in their party room in Canberra. So the Liberals, Xenophon, Greens all prepared to cut $210 million from South Australian schools; only Jay Weatherill stood up, because only Jay Weatherill stand up for South Australia. Any questions?

JOURNALIST: On another matter, just because time is against us, do you suspect the meeting between Barnaby Joyce and the Prime Minister yesterday, there are some reports that it didn't go too well at all. Are you hearing anything?

PLIBERSEK: Oh look, I'm not the person to tell you about how Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce get along behind closed doors. What we do know though is that the dysfunction and division that is apparent every day in public means that this country is not being properly governed. We've got a country  that is distracted by the soap opera that they are seeing between Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce. Instead of being focused on jobs, on health, on education, on infrastructure this government is tearing its self apart because the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are at each other’s throats. 

JOURNALIST: Given the comments that both gentlemen have made, do you think that any thought of reconciliation in a meeting, albeit in secret yesterday, is a waste of time? It’s gone beyond that point?

PLIBERSEK: It’s obvious  that the Prime Minster has no faith in his deputy. Barnaby Joyce is not allowed to be the Acting Prime Minister, while Malcolm Turnbull is overseas. If Barnaby Joyce can’t be the Acting Prime Minister then he can’t be the Deputy Prime Minister. What is equally apparent is that Barnaby Joyce has picked it, he said Malcolm Turnbull is inept, and he is. Malcolm Turnbull has been completely unable to enforce his existing code of conduct on Barnaby Joyce, who has accepted free rent, who has all sorts of questions about his travel allowance. All of these conflicts of interest, creating new jobs where jobs didn't previously exist to fix personal problems for himself, this is a misuse of taxpayer money that the Prime Minister should be able to call his deputy into line over, and he is not able to. He is not able to enforce the Prime Ministerial Code of Conduct on these issues on conflict of interest; he is inept. 

JOURNALIST: Would Labor persist with the new addition to the Code of Conduct to do with sexual relations between ministers and staffers?

PLIBERSEK: Honestly, ifcommon sense and common decency don't tell you that it is the wrong thing to do to sleep with your staff, I am not sure that a code of conduct that the Prime Minister is powerless to enforce is going to do the trick. Of course people shouldn't be sleeping with their staff, what a ridiculous distraction for Malcolm Turnbull to say the way to fix this is to write it into the Prime Ministerial Code of Conduct that is already proven he is powerless to enforce. This is a distraction and common sense tells you that if the boss is sleeping with the staff, that you have to take measures to remove those conflicts of interest. But this Prime Minister has proven again and again that he is powerless to do that. 

JOURNALIST: But if any meeting that they may have had or subsequent meetings, if they say they are back on track, and that seems to be a political buzz phrase, would you believe them? Could it possibly be back on track after any circumstances?

PLIBERSEK: I don't know how the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minster can possibly repair the division and dysfunction that we have seen in recent weeks. Now don't forget that in December last year Malcolm Turnbull was saying Barnaby was his great mate, he was a great hero, he was up there on the stage yahooing away in Tamworth during the by-election, he surely would have had questions at that time about Barnaby Joyce's behaviour. What's changed between then and this Thursday when he is out there saying he is hopeless and he should reconsider his position and he should resign? I think this is a Prime Minister who has buckled to public pressure to be seen to do something, what he should be acting on is the obvious and apparent conflicts of interest – the misuse of taxpayer funds. 

JOURNALIST:  Now Bill Shorten is in Tasmania today, does that indicate where Federal Labor's priorities lie? 

PLIBERSEK: Oh no, I think it’s very difficult isn't it, you've got two fantastic leaders, Jay Weatherill a great friend of mine and a wonderful Premier, and we have got a new candidate in Tasmania seeking to take Tasmanian Labor back from the wilderness into government. So a very difficult decision but of course...

JOURNALIST: Tassie won out!

PLIBERSEK: Well, no. I feel a little bit offended that you are saying … what am I chopped liver? Honestly I am delighted to be here, I'm delighted to support my friend Jay Weatherill. And tough choice for Bill but he wishes Jay all the very best cause he knows that only Jay Weatherill stands up for South Australia. Thanks everyone, last one. 

JOURNALIST: Are you confident that there are no current Labor MPs or frontbenchers who are in a similar position of having a personal relationship with their staff?

PLIBERSEK: Honestly, I would be embarrassed to start asking questions like that. As long as there are no conflicts of interest, as long as there are no misuse of taxpayer funds, then peoples private lives are their private lives. I really don’t want to live in a country where we start running witch hunts about peoples private lives. Thanks very much.