19 Feb 2018

Tension grows between Malcolm Turnbull, Barnaby Joyce

From Morning Report, 8:28 am on 19 February 2018

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had a reportedly fiery meeting with his embattled deputy Barnaby Joyce at the weekend. As leader of the National Party, Mr Joyce is crucial to the stabilty of Mr Turnbull's coalition government and he's under mounting pressure to resign over his affair with a parliamentary staffer. The affair led to Mr Turnbull instituting a ban on ministers sleeping with their staff and publicly rebuking Mr Joyce's behaviour. In turn Mr Joyce lashed out at Mr Turnbull saying his comments on his affair were "inept and unneccessary". Yesterday, Mr Turnbull was playing down any fireworks that occurred during his meeting with Mr Joyce. Michelle Grattan from The Conversation joins Susie Ferguson with her analysis.