Barnaby Joyce

Vocation

Family

Australian politician who served as Leader of the National Party and as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from 2016 to 2018. Joyce served as Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources (2013-2017), Minister for Resources and Northern Australia (2017) and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport (2017-2018) in the Abbott and Turnbull Governments. Joyce has been a member of the Parliament of Australia since 2005: he was a member of the Australian Senate for Queensland from 2005 until 2013, before switching to the Australian House of Representatives, where he has been the member for New South Wales seat of New England since 2013. Joyce was embroiled in the dual citizenship crisis of 2017, with the confirmation of his New Zealand citizenship by descent, and his candidacy in the last election was ruled invalid by the High Court in October 2017. The finding prompted a by-election in the New England constituency on 2 December, which saw Joyce re-elected with an increased majority, returning to parliament and cabinet the following week. In February 2018, Joyce's former media consultant Vikki Campion was reported to be pregnant with his child. Joyce faced criticism and calls to resign, some from fellow party members and cabinet colleagues, over forming a sexual relationship between a minister and his staffer, the contradiction between support for family values and his actions, and the creation of new employment roles for Campion. Later that month, in a separate incident, the Nationals received a formal complaint accusing Joyce of sexual harassment. On 23 February 2018, he announced that he would resign from his positions and return to the backbench at the next Nationals party room meeting on 26 February. Joyce met Natalie Abberfield at university and they married in 1993. They have four daughters together, all born in Tamworth. Joyce announced in December 2017 that he and his wife had separated. On 16 April 2018, Campion gave birth to their son, Sebastian, at Armidale Hospital in Armidale. Link to Wikipedia biography