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AN AFFAIR THAT led to the resignation of Australia’s deputy prime minister took a bizarre twist after he questioned the paternity of the baby carried by his partner and former aide.
Barnaby Joyce quit and moved to the back benches last month after his affair with the younger ex-staffer made headlines for weeks and raised questions about whether he had breached ministerial rules.
The scandal led Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to impose a ban on sex between ministers and their staff, in an overhaul of the cabinet code of conduct.
Joyce was the leader of the National Party, which rules alongside Turnbull’s Liberals in a governing coalition, and his resignation appeared to end the saga for the embattled government.
The coalition has a wafer-thin parliamentary majority and has been hit in recent months by a series of controversies that has shaken its grip on power.
But the issue flared up again when Joyce, who left his wife of 24 years for the former adviser, told Fairfax Media in an interview published late Saturday that the identity of the biological father was “a grey area”.
He claimed Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, which broke the story of the affair in early February, had “never even asked if it was Joyce’s bundle”.
Joyce believes he and the former aide, 33-year-old Vikki Campion, were apart for almost all of the conception period, but said he would not get a paternity test.
The baby boy is due in April, according to Joyce.
“It’s mine, on the record, there it is,” he told Fairfax. “And can I say, even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t care, I’d still go through this, I’d still love him.”
The Daily Telegraph reporter who revealed the affair said on Twitter that Joyce’s claims that his office was not asked about paternity were untrue.
The affair sparked a rift between the Liberal and National parties, with Turnbull criticising Joyce’s behaviour and voicing sympathy for his wife, four daughters and Campion.
Even though Joyce, who was replaced by Nationals MP Michael McCormack in both roles, has stepped down, his expenses during and after the period when he worked with Campion were under scrutiny in Senate hearings last week.
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Lucky them saving their ears from that torture.
@Andrew Kenny: OK Boomer, are Crosby, Stills and Nash not touring anymore? Is that why you’re lashing out at young folk just having fun…
@Sea Point: Young, you forgot the most important one
@Sea Point:
In all fairness though, her music is shyte…
@Regular John: it keeps me up all night…
What is it with powerful outspoken indecently thinking young women that , triggers so many men
@Robert Halvey: its because they are snowflakes and get easily upset with anything to do with Taylor Swift
@Robert Halvey: in this case, because she is none of the things in your list. I think it is the ridiculous hype that winds people up. Swift is a prototype for a certain business model in the music industry. That’s her real significance. It began with Presley and the Beatles and is now at the stage marked by swifts marketing,merchandising machine. Worth studying but the music itself ,though popular, is nothing to write home about.
@Robert Halvey: Just one of many things that upsets them I’d imagine. They spend their days complaining and accusing everyone and everything of being “woke”, constantly angry.
@Robert Halvey: i don’t like her music. I don’t like Ed Sheerans music does that mean I’m triggered by him?
@Alan: That’s fair, I think her music is the blandest type of pop that would never interest me. Very little pop music has any interest for me, at the best of times.
She gets a particular level of venom directed towards her that is just not justified though. She is extremely successful and worked hard to achieve that success. She has shone a light on how artists can take control of their music, via the Taylor Versions (which, regardless of what genre or artists you or I like more, benefits from).
Pretty sure that the most vitriolic types that attack her for doing her thing, are the same types that follow people like Andrew Tate or Trump.
@Robert Halvey: That’s an interesting point. Why do males react so negatively to successful women?
@Patrick MC Dermott: ‘Males’ may, Men don’t.
Male Taylor Swift fans getting their knickers in a twist over comments and calling other men snowflakes ?? … LOL, you couldn’t make that up !
@ben wu: but then these records come out in multiple formats and the fans buy them all. Extremely cynical marketing? Plus she doesn’t write all the songs herself, so the image is a composite of various other peoples ideas. Which is fine if you make a point of indicating that. End of the line for me is her bringing her boyfriend onstage ffs lol liberation for women, that’s what I preach
@Patrick MC Dermott: So because she’s a woman we have to like her music and say she’s great?
@Alan: As far as I know, regarding the Taylor Versions for those 6 albums, she has always had a songwriting credit, or co-contributing songwriting credit on every song. It’s literally the reason she was able to re-record them when she got blocked from buying the masters.
There are not many major artists that can pull off that sort of move, Prince may have been one, but he chose a different road.
That her fans bought those records, is not really of too much interest to me, and from what I’ve heard, a significant number of people that are not her fans (people that write songs) also bought them just to send a signal to the types that are buying up back catalogues just to profit off of.
@Ger Whelan: same here too much hype about them and music is over played
@Martin Bishop: ha ha
@Martin Bishop: More like they are baffled over peoples obsession with her.
@James T.Kirk: Do you not find it a little odd, that the ones that post on every article about her and shout loud about how much they dislike her, are the same types that view every article and think their comment has value?
@ben wu: her music all same and as for blowing his own trumpet well the world would be better place without him in it
@Karen Marten: Music tastes are subjective. There are a lot of very successful artists for whom I have utterly no interest in. I don’t engage in disparaging them or their fans, since…why bother? Could also add that success is a metric that is objective, whether number of records sold, or number of concert goers.
I’m fine with liking a lot of artists that don’t have pop success or mainstream recognition, I just don’t see any point in just hating on ones that I wouldn’t listen to. It seems very much like a waste of time.
No idea what the rest of your post even means.
I’m sure mammy and daddy will sort it out for them.
No wonder the Hoteliers where giving out about the strike, they where fleecing all these people flying in for the concert.
Oh diddums so sick of hearing about her ans hearing her naff sings
@Karen Marten: ok Karen
@orb7eckn: and what exactly are you saying ok Karen to. Oh could it be you are calling me A Karen
@Karen Marten: I’m sooo not upset .
Back in my day, a swifty was a quickly rolled joint.
What is going on here? A person with an average voice and who puts together two and three-chord jingles is paid billions? Plato warned that the decline and fall of civilisation would be preceded by the decay of its music. Future looks grim
“Shake it off…..”!!!!!
She make a great golf club
When will this Swift nonsense end?
It’s going on for weeks, just do your concerts and get lost.
There are other things going on besides these First World problems
Great.. Might be a few cheap tickets available then.
I only ever seen her eye glitch but I’ve never heard her voice and there’s a reason for that.
Ahh boo and hoo too!
Dear Friends in Music,
As a Non-Touring Independent Artist, it’s difficult to grow a fan base.
I’m looking for your help in building a bigger following on Spotify.
I would be very grateful if you could open the link below and click the FOLLOW BUTTON and then click the follow button on my Spotify page.
Very much appreciated,
Thank you
Patrick
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/patrickwestman/all-my-colours-fade-to-blue
Oh, the Humanity!
Bought two tickets, not for me I hasten to add, but have listened to a few of her songs, and she’s not bad. More a Zep fan myself, with a bit of Mahler or Boulez thrown in for good measure, but now when she comes on the radio, I don’t turn the dial as they say.
have your say