Channel Nine’s Today show host Karl Stefanovic has ridiculed Prime Minister Turnbull’s sex ban for ministers and their staff as nothing more than a “PR stunt” as the fallout continues from the Barnaby Joyce scandal.
“The Prime Minister knew about this affair last year,” Stefanovic said on Friday. “He knew about it before the by-election and he chose to turn a blind eye.”
“Why was he moralising yesterday and not then?”
Senior Liberal minister Christopher Pyne defended the PM, saying circumstances had changed.
“What Barnaby Joyce has been doing in his private life, nobody wants to pry into but sadly… this last week, the private became the public,” Mr Pyne said.
“That has not been good for the government, for the Joyce family, good for Barnaby or good for his new partner and the Prime Minister made that quite clear.
“Clearly, it did need to be spelt out in the code which of course is incredibly disappointing.
“But obviously over the last week it’s become more apparent that what was common sense had been breached.”
.@AlboMP and @cpyne weigh in on the Barnaby Joyce saga and the Prime Minister's actions yesterday. What do you think? #9Today pic.twitter.com/j7yDtzdeQg
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) February 15, 2018
