LETTERS: Barnaby Joyce’s behaviour can’t go unchallenged
LETTERS TO EDITOR
IS JOYCE'S AFFAIR A PRIVATE OR PUBLIC DEBATE?
THE revelation that Mr Joyce has been indulging in hanky panky with a now former staff member is being debated as private business not public. It is vital that the public know what sort of people are in our Parliament making laws which affect us.
The first relevant debate is whether integrity is a whole of character trait or can it be compartmentalised. If people behave appallingly in their private lives will they behave well in their public lives? Cheating on your wife with a younger model is such a cliché that I find it unappetizing in a mundane man not improved
by being indulged in by an MP.
The next debate is having affairs with staff members in the Parliament. This same problem has occurred in the United States and is regarded as improper in its own right. Should there be some standards of behaviour in our own?
On the electoral level Mr Joyce represents himself as a Catholic, conservative. Will the Pope annul his marriage and say his daughters don’t really exist? He made a vow; broken. His wife gave her support during his climb to the dizzying heights Deputy PM. That support and loyalty has been negated. A friend whose husband behaved in this same scenario described her experience as being dropped on the other side of the moon.
Will the first Mrs Joyce now be invited to all the functions and social life she has been accustomed to. Will friends she has made in the political and Diplomatic circles invite her to dinner. Who will look after her? The feminist statement that the personal is the political is well born out in this situation.
If Mr Joyce’s personal behavior goes unchallenged he will be validating it for other men. These lazy , indulged men find true love only as far away as the door to the next office.
Well Mr Turnbull will you turn your back on Mrs Joyce and pretend this means nothing. Where is your backbone on this issue or will just say its personal.
Penelope Haberfeld
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