Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has revealed he offered to quit after an embarrassing text leak that revealed he called Prime Minister a “hypocrite and a liar”.
Mr Joyce fronted media in Sydney on Saturday morning – having already apologised to Scott Morrison – revealing that the Prime Minister had rejected his offer of resignation.
“He accepted my apology. I offered my resignation and do not accept my resignation,” Mr Joyce said.
“And that in itself is a statement of a person of greater character. That is not one person of an informed public addictiveness or pain or a sense of retribution.”
The messages – sent in March last year – came when Mr Joyce was still a backbencher and before he returned to the National Party leadership.
“He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time. I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie,” Mr Joyce wrote.
“I and Scott, he is Scott until I recognise his office, don’t get along.”
Mr Joyce on Friday admitted it was “common knowledge that in the past the Prime Minister and I had not always seen eye-to-eye”.
“But I have worked extremely closely with the Prime Minister over the last seven months since I returned to the role of Deputy Prime Minister; and the Prime Minister is a person of high integrity and honesty in what is possibly the most difficult job in the nation.”
The incident comes after Mr Joyce called on a another serving cabinet minister, who allegedly called Scott Morrison “a complete psycho” in text messages, to “out themselves”.
