Uproar as ex-deputy Australia PM plans over selling love-child story idea

Sydney: A decision by Australia’s former deputy prime minister to sell his story about having a love child with a former aide sparked derision on Tuesday and calls for politicians to be banned from paid interviews.

Scandal-hit Barnaby Joyce, who was forced to quit in February and move to the backbench over his affair with his 33-year-old former media adviser, will reportedly be paid 150,000 Australian dollar ($113,000) for a tell-all television appearance by the pair on Sunday.

Malcolm Turnbull said he planned to raise the matter privately with the married Joyce, whose smaller National Party rules alongside the prime minister’s Liberals. “It’s certainly not... a course of action that I would’ve encouraged him to take, I’ll put it that way,” he told broadcaster ABC.

“I think you can understand how I feel about it, but I’ll just be circumspect, uncharacteristically circumspect, on this and leave it for a private discussion.”

News that Joyce, 50, had left his wife of 24 years for Vikki Campion grip-ped Australia earlier this year, sparking debate about workplace culture amid the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment. The saga took another twist when Joyce questioned the paternity of the baby boy, who has since been born.

Best known outside Australia for threatening to euthanise Hollywood star Johnny Depp’s two dogs when they were brought into the country illegally, Joyce claimed on Tuesday that it was Campion’s decision to accept payment for the interview.