The political stench of the Barnaby Joyce affair has followed Malcolm Turnbull to a small country town where a persistent fly kept hovering around his face.
The Prime Minister’s attempts to shoo away the annoying insect proved futile during an outdoor media conference today at Trangie, in north-west New South Wales.
At one point during a joint media conference with his Nationals deputy Michael McCormack, Mr Turnbull tried blowing away the fly and shooing it repeatedly with his left hand as it kept landing on his face.
The political stench of the Barnaby Joyce affair has followed Malcolm Turnbull to a small country town where a persistent fly kept hovering around his face
Mr Turnbull’s Minister for Infrastructure and Transport had just been asked about an assertion by Vikki Campion, his Nationals predecessor Barnaby Joyce’s girlfriend, that she was pressured to have an abortion by Nationals staffers.
‘If there are allegations that people are making, perhaps they should take that up on a personal level with the people they’re levelling the allegations against,’ Mr McCormack told reporters on a farm 467km north-west of Sydney.
As Mr McCormack addressed the question, Malcolm Turnbull shooed away a fly next to his nose with his left index finger and moments later with his whole hand.
Moments earlier in the media conference, Nationals Agriculture Minister David Littleproud shook his head and blew away another fly.
The Prime Minister’s attempts to shoo away an annoying insect proven futile during an outdoor media conference today at Trangie, in north-west New South Wales
As Nationals leader Michael McCormack (left) addressed question about Vikki Campion, Malcolm Turnbull (centre) shooed away a fly next to his nose with his left index finger and moments later with his whole hand
It came the day after the Seven Network broadcast Vikki Campion’s claim that ‘God-fearing conservatives’ within the Nationals had pressured her to have an abortion.
‘They said “you’re pregnant, and you have to get an abortion”, 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”,’ Ms Campion told the Sunday Night program.
The couple’s $150,000 paid interview with the Seven Network has been condemned by the former deputy prime minister’s own side of politics.
It went to air six weeks after Ms Campion gave birth to baby Sebastian.
The boy was the first child for the former News Corp Australia journalist, 33, and the fifth for her 51-year-old former boss, whom she fell in love with in 2016 while working as his media adviser.
The incident occurred the day after the Seven Network broadcast Vikki Campion’s claim that ‘God-fearing conservatives’ within the Nationals had pressured her to have an abortion
Sebastian (pictured) was the first child for the former News Corp Australia journalist, 33, and the fifth for her 51-year-old former boss, whom she fell in love with in 2016 while working as his media adviser