The Deputy Prime Minister says his leaked text was based on “assumptions and commentary” and that Scott Morrison has declined the resignation offer.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce offered to resign from his leadership position following a texting scandal where he called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a “hypocrite and a liar”.
Mr Joyce said he wanted to unreservedly apologise to Mr Morrison and said he “should never have written the text that I did”. The message to Ms Higgins was sent by Mr Joyce, who was then on the backbench, on March 22, 2021, at 8.30pm through a third party, because the MP did not have her phone number.The third party is known to, but the person will not be identified at the request of Ms Higgins.
“While the text message was supposed to be private, what I said in that message was wrong; and I have unreservedly apologised to the Prime Minister for my comments,” he said. “It is common knowledge that in the past the Prime Minister and I had not always seen eye to eye.
The revelation of the explosive text message to Ms Higgins comes just days after Network 10 political editor Peter van Onselen claimed to have a copy of a text message exchange between Ms Berejiklian and an unnamed federal cabinet member. It is not clear if the program prompted Mr Joyce to send the message but in the preceding weeks, Mr Morrison had been heavily criticised for his initial response to Ms Higgins’ claims.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Barnaby Joyce offered his resignation after texts calling PM ‘a hypocrite and a liar’ were leakedBreaking: Speaking to reporters on Saturday morning, Barnaby Joyce said the Prime Minister had declined his offer to resign, which the Deputy PM said was in itself “a statement of a person a great character” | auspol
Read more »
Barnaby Joyce offers resignation after leaked textsDeputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and publicly apologised for his leaked texts. 7NEWS
Read more »
Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison a ‘liar’ and ‘hypocrite’ in leaked textWatch live: Barnaby Joyce is holding a press conference after it emerged he called Prime Minister Scott Morrison a liar and a hypocrite in a text message.
Read more »
Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison a ‘liar’ and ‘hypocrite’ in leaked textBarnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison a liar and hypocrite in messages sent to Brittany Higgins in March 2021.
Read more »
Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison a ‘liar’ and ‘hypocrite’ in leaked textBarnaby Joyce described Scott Morrison as “a hypocrite and a liar” in a text message sent on to Brittany Higgins a month after the former staffer’s rape claims exploded into the public arena | jamesmassola
Read more »