Prime Minister Scott Morrison has broken his silence on the leaking of more damaging text messages.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was forced to issue an apology for a message he sent last year callinxjmtzywg Mr Morrison a hypocrite and a liar.
The Prime Minister sought to brush off the text, saying he couldn’t care less what people said about him.
Mr Morrison appeared at an event called I Forgive Day on Sunday, saying he had done just that in relation to the Deputy Prime Minister.
“This day is all about understanding human frailty. Human frailty, it’s real. We all share it. We all live with it and we all need to be more understanding of it,” the Prime Minister said.
“Politicians are no different to people watching me now. People asking me questions now. People anywhere around the country.
“We all need to be more understanding of each other in that way. And that’s certainly the approach that I adopt, especially with my colleagues.”
The timing of the texts is terrible for the Prime Minister, with parliament set to return.
But cabinet minister Sussan Ley said there was no chance the Liberal Party would try to tear Mr Morrison down.
“None at all, absolutely none … I reflect often on how positive the unity is with us,” she told Sky News.
“As a minister that has sat in three cabinets with three prime ministers, this is the most united cabinet table I have sat at.”
Mr Morrison described politics as a “brutal business”, excusing the comments made by Mr Joyce in the text messages.
“Anyone who pretends that from time to time people don’t get angry or bitter or don’t act like other human beings, then if you can’t accept and understand each other’s frailties and be forgiving … then frankly that says a lot more about you than it does others,” he told reporters.
“Politicians are no different to anyone else and people say things and feel things.
“People get angry, people get bitter, of course they do, so who am I to be judging someone else?”
Furious Nationals MPs are expected to tell Mr Joyce to “lift his game” at a party room meeting on Monday, with several members of the party room angry about the texts.
For his part, Mr Joyce has admitted he and the Prime Minister did not always see eye to eye, but said their relationship had improved.
The timing of the texts is particularly awkward for Mr Joyce because they were published just days after he called for the minister behind similarly brutal texts to come clean.
That minister had reportedly called Mr Morrison a “complete psycho” in a conversation with Gladys Berejiklian.
The former NSW premier reportedly called him a “horrible, horrible person”.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews on Sunday defended the Prime Minister, saying she had no experiences where Mr Morrison has been caught in a lie.
Ms Andrews conceded to having “a couple of robust discussions with him” but said he was always “respectful”.
“I haven’t found him to be anything but decent and respectful to me,” she said.
Ms Andrews said Mr Morrison has held the top job during a “particularly difficult time”.
“Integrity is absolutely important and I’m not going to dismiss or attempt to dismiss any of that,” she said.
“But we are coming up to a federal election in the next couple of months and what Australians will be asked to decide on is who is going to lead that country.”
