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A Western Australia MP has used parliamentary privilege to raise historic allegations of sexual misconduct by newly reinstated Nationals Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Jackie Jarvis, of the Labor Party, spoke in WA’s upper house on Friday, saying she wanted to “set the record straight” over allegations made by a woman about Mr Joyce several years ago . She also said she had been warned that Mr Joyce was known to grope women. Mr. Joyce issued a brief statement saying that MP WA’s statement was politically motivated. “What a Labor Party member said about me at 2 a.m. under parliamentary privilege several days after I was sworn in is politically understandable but defamatory and misleading,” he said. “I invite him to make the same allegation without the cover of parliamentary privilege.” During her statement to parliament, Ms Jarvis said that as a participant in the WA Rural Women’s Award in 2014, an event organizer asked a number of women, including herself, to “watch out for Barnaby Joyce because he used to grope women “. “It’s been a really long day so I want to be absolutely clear,” she said. “I was the representative for WA in Australia’s main award for rural women and was warned that the then Federal Minister of Agriculture was known to sexually harass women at events.” Ms Jarvis’ comments come four days after Mr Joyce was elected leader of the Nationals in a ballot in the village hall in Canberra, resuming the job he lost more than three years ago. The NSW MP lost his job in 2018 after scandals related to his affair with a staff member who has since given birth to the couple’s two children, as well as allegations of sexual harassment he strongly denies. National MPs Michelle Landry and Anne Webster have both expressed concern that Mr. Joyce’s story could hurt the party’s standing with female voters. He was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development at a ceremony in Canberra on Tuesday. Mr Joyce will spend the weekend finalizing his ministerial composition, which is expected to be sworn in on Monday. Associated Australian Press
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A Western Australian MP has used parliamentary privilege to raise historic allegations of sexual misconduct by newly reinstated Nationals Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
Jackie Jarvis, of the Labor Party, spoke in WA’s upper house on Friday, saying she wanted to “set the record straight” over allegations made by a woman about Mr Joyce several years ago .
She also said she had been warned that Mr Joyce was known to grope women.
Mr. Joyce issued a brief statement saying that MP WA’s statement was politically motivated.
“What a Labor Party member said about me at 2 a.m. under parliamentary privilege several days after I was sworn in is politically understandable but defamatory and misleading,” he said.
“I invite him to make the same allegation without the cover of parliamentary privilege.”
During her statement to parliament, Ms Jarvis said that as a participant in the WA Rural Women’s Award in 2014, an event organizer asked a number of women, including herself, to “watch out for Barnaby Joyce because he used to grope women “.
“It’s been a really long day so I want to be absolutely clear,” she said.
“I was the representative for WA in Australia’s main award for rural women and was warned that the then Federal Minister of Agriculture was known to sexually harass women at events.”
Ms Jarvis’ comments come four days after Mr Joyce was elected leader of the Nationals in a ballot in the village hall in Canberra, resuming the job he lost more than three years ago.
The NSW MP lost his job in 2018 after scandals related to his affair with a staff member who has since given birth to the couple’s two children, as well as allegations of sexual harassment he strongly denies.
National MPs Michelle Landry and Anne Webster have both expressed concern that Mr. Joyce’s story could hurt the party’s standing with female voters.
He was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development at a ceremony in Canberra on Tuesday.
Mr Joyce will spend the weekend finalizing his ministerial composition, which is expected to be sworn in on Monday.
Associated Australian Press
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