Australian voters are more troubled by a potential misuse of entitlements or an improper exercise of ministerial authority than they are about the sexual relationship between Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion, according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
The latest fortnightly survey of 1,028 respondents suggests voters are more worried about Campion being moved between offices after she left the employ of Joyce as a consequence of their intimate relationship (50%), and by the potential for the excessive use of taxpayer-funded travel entitlements (60%), than they are about Joyce having a sexual relationship with a subordinate (23%).
Joyce being given free accommodation in Armidale after his marriage breakup by his friend and prominent local businessman Greg Maguire also rated ahead of the relationship (45%) on a list where respondents were asked to nominate their concerns.
With the media frenzy around Joyce’s travails gathering pace over the past fortnight before his resignation as National party leader and deputy prime minister, voters were asked their view about whether journalists should expose the private affairs of politicians.
Politicians have been critical, both publicly and privately, of the intrusive media reporting of the Joyce-Campion relationship. The Guardian Essential sample split, with more people approving of the media scrutiny (44%) than disapproving (41%) of it.
Coalition voters were more likely to disapprove of the coverage than Labor or Greens voters, or people intending to vote for someone other than the major parties, and older people (55 and over) were more disapproving than voters aged between 25 and 44.
The poll was in the field as Joyce confirmed his intentions late last week, with some responses logged before that development, and some after it. The sample split again over what actions Joyce should take as a consequence of the affair and the issues surrounding it becoming public – with 19% believing he should remain Nationals leader and 26% supporting the decision he took last Friday – to resign as party leader but remain in parliament.
The biggest slice of the sample, 34%, thought Joyce should leave both the national party leadership and the parliament, while 21% of the survey was undecided. Looking at the results in aggregate, 60% felt he should resign as leader, while 45% think he should stay on in parliament.
Voters were also asked their views on a decision by Malcolm Turnbull to ban sexual relationships between ministers and their staff, a regulation unveiled at the height of the controversy.
Half the sample (50%) supported the prime minister’s decision to ban office liaisons (32% opposition), while 44% of the sample would support a total ban on politicians having extramarital sex (36% opposition).
The survey produced similar numbers about banning sexual relationships between managers and their staff in a workplace environment (48% support and 35% opposition) – but voters weren’t at all keen on a sex ban between workmates, with only 22% supporting that idea while 55% opposed it.
Voters were asked whether they agreed with the prime minister’s ban on sexual relationships between ministers and their staff because of “the power imbalance in the relationship” – with 39% saying that statement was close to their view.
A higher proportion agreed with the statement “the government had no right to ban consensual relationships between adults, the ban is unenforceable, but they do have the right to insist that such relationships are declared”– with 48% nominating that as their view.
The Nationals and the Turnbull government attempted to push past the controversy on Monday, with Joyce moving officially to the backbench, and the party room anointing the New South Wales lower house MP Michael McCormack to replace him.
McCormack has taken on Joyce’s former portfolio of infrastructure, and another National will shortly take up the new leader’s former portfolio as minister for veterans affairs.
On Monday, it was revealed in Senate estimates that the prime minister ordered a departmental investigation into whether Joyce breached the ministerial code of conduct at the height of the controversy, despite publicly defending him.
But Turnbull’s departmental head has now canned the inquiry on the basis that there is “little to be gained” now that the former Nationals leader has moved to the backbench.
The independent authority charged with administering parliamentarians’ expenses is meanwhile continuing to audit the taxpayer-funded travel undertaken by the member for New England and Campion.
