The Seven Network paid a reported $150,000 for the interview which Joyce and Campion are putting into a trust fund for Sebastian, who was born in April.
In democratic political systems, public officials are accountable through the media to the people. That responsibility to be accountable comes with public office. It is not a marketable commodity.
At a Nationals meeting on Monday morning, Barnaby Joyce will resign as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister, but will stay on as the member for New England.
Media reporting of the Barnaby Joyce affair would have been so much better if journalists had established substantial public-interest justifications before breaking the story.
As the crisis within the Coalition deepened, Barnaby Joyce held a news conference to respond to Malcolm Turnbull’s denunciation of his personal behaviour.
Banning relationships is likely to be ineffective and may result in disengagement, secrecy and resentment by employees of the encroachment of employment policies into genuinely private matters.