Barnaby Joyce interview: Vikki Campion claims conservatives pressured her to terminate baby

Vikki Campion has revealed she was pressured to get an abortion by conservative politicians after becoming pregnant with Barnaby Joyce’s baby.

Mr Joyce, 51, and his former media adviser spoke out about their affair in a $150,000 tell-all interview aired on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program.

Ms Campion said she had been threatened by ‘God-fearing conservatives’ within the National party to terminate her pregnancy before giving birth to Sebastian.

‘They came to me and they said ‘You’re pregnant and you have to get an abortion’. And they said ‘If you don’t, they’re going to come after you’,’ she said.

 

Vikki Campion said she was pressured to get an abortion by conservative politicians after becoming pregnant with Barnaby Joyce’s baby (Pictured: baby Sebastian)

Mr Joyce, 51, and his former media adviser spoke out about their affair on Channel Seven's Sunday Night program with reporter Alex Cullen 

Mr Joyce, 51, and his former media adviser spoke out about their affair on Channel Seven’s Sunday Night program with reporter Alex Cullen 

Ms Campion said she had been threatened by 'conservatives' within the National party to terminate her pregnancy

Ms Campion said she had been threatened by ‘conservatives’ within the National party to terminate her pregnancy

‘And I said ‘It’s too late, it has a heartbeat’. And they said ‘If you don’t, they’re going to come after you’.’

Mr Joyce said those that had threatened Ms Campion were the ‘absolute scum of the earth’.

‘Their contribution to it is they’re going to try and make an incredibly difficult situation almost unbearable by saying to you that, ‘Woman, you will do this if you want a career in this place’. And that’s your Australian parliament,’ he said.

Ms Campion said she took a pregnancy test in winter 2017 which confirmed she was carrying Mr Joyce’s child.

‘I felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the situation we had caused ourselves,’ she said.

Mr Joyce said as he doesn’t believe in abortion, he knew at that moment he would lose his job as Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Joyce said those that had threatened Ms Campion were 'absolute scum of the earth'

Mr Joyce said those that had threatened Ms Campion were ‘absolute scum of the earth’

Ms Campion said she considered getting an abortion and bought the medicine 

Ms Campion said she considered getting an abortion and bought the medicine 

Ms Campion said she considered getting an abortion and bought the medicine to do so.

‘I tried, and I couldn’t go there,’ she said.

After driving interstate from the Australian Capital Territory she ‘walked in and then walked out’ of an abortion clinic, ultimately deciding to keep the child.

Ms Campion said she was told by doctors shortly before she fell pregnant that she would not be able to have children.

The couple controversially accepted a $150,000 sum from the Seven Network to tell their side of the political scandal. 

‘Boy, man you caused me some problems,’ Mr Joyce said of his baby son Sebastian. 

‘But it’s all worth it. I just want him to be that little boy in the country.’

Ms Campion apologised to her son and ‘every innocent party that was dragged through this’. 

The couple revealed they were ‘close for a long time’ while working together, before their relationship became romantic in late 2016.

‘I was close to him. I was going through some fairly difficult private circumstances of my own. He was also going through some things,’ she said.

Mr Joyce’s wife Natalie was becoming suspicious about his relationship with his media adviser as they continued to spend large amounts of time together.

Ms Campion said she couldn’t repeat the words Natalie used towards her during a confrontation.

Mr Joyce admitted to ‘living a lie’ by continuing his public relationship with his wife while secretly being involved with Ms Campion.

The affair between Barnaby Joyce and his former media adviser Vikki Campion caused his salary to halve from $416,000 to $203,000 as backbencher with no portfolio (the couple are pictured here at a bar at Glebe in Sydney's inner west last year before the news broke)

The affair between Barnaby Joyce and his former media adviser Vikki Campion caused his salary to halve from $416,000 to $203,000 as backbencher with no portfolio (the couple are pictured here at a bar at Glebe in Sydney’s inner west last year before the news broke)

He refused to comment on his estranged wife Natalie and his four daughters, saying that was ‘completely private’.

Ms Campion said she was hurt that Mr Joyce had said Sebastian’s paternity was a ‘grey area’.

‘It was a decision we made together,’ Mr Joyce said of his comments, before she rebutted: ‘I didn’t tell you to say it was a ”grey area”.’ 

The former Deputy Prime Minister also slammed Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to criticise him over the affair, saying it was the ‘wrong’ decision.

‘You admonish someone privately and then you support them publicly… that’s the golden rule,’ Mr Joyce said. 

The Prime Minister said Mr Joyce’s behaviour had been ‘appalling’.

Ms Campion revealed the backlash she felt after news of the affair and her pregnancy went public.

‘One I remember said: ‘I hope the baby is born stillborn’,’ she said of the social media comments she was subjected to – a comment which was particularly hurtful for her because of ‘health problems’ she had throughout the pregnancy.  

‘Everything was worth it for this,’ Ms Campion said, as she held the hand of her baby son.

He said he wouldn’t discourage his son from a career in politics, although he said he would have to question him if he decided to run for the Greens. 

Mr Joyce is estranged from his wife of 24 years Natalie and their four adult daughters as a result of the extramarital affair that forced him to quit as Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister.

The backbench MP for the New South Wales seat of New England told the Seven Network he had let his family down.

Joyce refused to accept sole responsibility for the revealing tell-all - which many are calling hypocritical given the politician's previous demands for privacy - due to the fact that Vikki will be interviewed as well

Joyce refused to accept sole responsibility for the revealing tell-all – which many are calling hypocritical given the politician’s previous demands for privacy – due to the fact that Vikki will be interviewed as well

‘I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed,’ he said.

The former accountant’s salary has also halved from $416,000 to $203,000 after the affair raised character questions about the Catholic, family values politician who had last year campaigned against gay marriage.

Despite the personal and political pain that caused to her boyfriend, Vikki Campion said that was the price of love.

‘I couldn’t help it. You can’t help who you fall in love with,’ she said.

The pair’s decision to go forward with the interview has angered Mr Joyce’s own conservative side of politics.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was opposed to the paid media interview. 

‘It’s not a course of action I would have encouraged,’ he said.

Mr Joyce said the money from the interview would go into a trust fund for young Sebastian which would be controlled by an independent administrator.

His successor as Nationals leader Michael McCormack had a similar view point as the Prime Minister when it came to a federal MP accepting cash, albeit indirectly, for a paid interview.

The Barnaby Joyce affair – Timeline

2016

May – Vikki Campion assists Barnaby Joyce’s election campaign as media adviser, having previously worked with NSW government ministers and News Corp

August – Campion joins Joyce’s staff. She splits with fiance John Bergin, three months before they were due to wed. Friendship develops between Joyce and Campion

December – Chief of staff Di Hallam reportedly seeks Joyce’s approval to have Campion transferred out of office. Hallam later quits to take up departmental role

2017

February – Campion is photographed in a Sydney bar with Joyce, as revealed by Daily Mail Australia

April – Barnaby’s wife Natalie reportedly confronts Campion in Tamworth. Campion goes to minister Matt Canavan office as adviser. Natalie and Barnaby seek to make marriage work

May – At New South Wales Nationals conference in Broken Hill colleagues describe Joyce as ‘a mess’

June – Natalie and Barnaby show up together at Canberra press gallery midwinter ball

July – Campion leaves her $191,000 job in Mr Canavan’s office after he quits frontbench over citizenship. She temporarily goes back to Joyce’s office

August – Campion moves to Damian Drum’s office in a social media adviser position specially created for her. He already has a media adviser. In this time she oversees just 50 posts to Facebook

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is reportedly reassured by Joyce the relationship with Campion is over. Drum says he was told the same thing. Former Joyce chief of staff Di Hallam takes up a senior position with the Inland Rail project

September – Natalie reportedly asks family friend, Catholic priest Father Frank Brennan, to counsel Joyce. Campion is seen managing Joyce media events at federal Nationals conference in Canberra

October – Campion reportedly takes stress leave. Writ issued for New England by-election after Joyce quits over dual citizenship

November – Natalie holidays in Bali with a daughter. Man in a pub in Inverell angers Joyce during election campaign by reportedly saying: ‘Say hello to your mistress’

December – Joyce wins by-election. Joyce tells parliament during same-sex marriage debate he is separated. Campion’s redundancy package is approved. They move into an Armidale property provided rent-free by businessman Greg Maguire

2018

January – Joyce and Campion holiday in north Queensland and NSW north coast

February – Joyce tells reporters Campion is now his partner. But denies she was his partner when she worked in Canavan’s office

March – Joyce casts doubt on the baby’s paternity, calling it a ‘grey area’ and claiming journalists never asked him if Ms Campion’s child was his 

April 16 – Sebastian Joyce born

May 8 – Baby boy seen for the first time

May 26 – Details emerge of Barnaby Joyce’s paid $150,000 interview

May 30 – Seven Network reveals Vikki Campion pressured to have abortion 

Source: AAP from media reports and official statements

‘I wouldn’t have done it, but you know that’s a decision that Barnaby has taken,’ he said. 

Mr Joyce has taken personal leave for several weeks to spend time with Ms Campion and their son Sebastian.

Mr Joyce has refused to accept sole responsibility for the revealing tell-all – which many are calling hypocritical given the politician’s previous demands for privacy – due to the fact that Vikki will be interviewed as well. 

The former deputy prime minister said the decision was made after weeks of relentless media pressure that showed no signs of ‘burning out’, as the mother of his newborn realised she may as well benefit from the ordeal, New Corp reported.

‘We tried for privacy,’ said Mr Joyce. 

‘In the last fortnight we’ve had drones over our house. We’ve had paparazzi waiting for us outside Armidale airport… we’ve tried just burning this out and that didn’t work.’ 

The couple, who now have a five-week old son Sebastian, has controversially accepted $150,000 from the Seven Network to tell their side of a major political scandal

The couple, who now have a five-week old son Sebastian, has controversially accepted $150,000 from the Seven Network to tell their side of a major political scandal

The former deputy prime minister said his former staffer and the mother of his newborn Vikki Campion realised she may as well benefit from the ordeal after weeks of relentless media pressure

The pair's decision to go forward with the interview has divided the public and parliament (pictured is Barnaby)  

The former deputy prime minister (right) said his former staffer (left) and the mother of his newborn Vikki Campion realised she may as well benefit from the ordeal after weeks of relentless media pressure



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