Barnaby Joyce labelled Scott Morrison “a hypocrite and a liar” in a private text message, sent before he returned to the leadership of the National party.
In another blow for the embattled prime minister, the leaked text, seen by Guardian Australia, was forwarded to the former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins by a third party.
In it, Joyce said he did not “get along” with Morrison.
“He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time,” Joyce said in the message, dated March last year.
“I have never trusted him, and I dislike how earnestly [he] rearranges the truth to a lie.”
Joyce’s attack is the second time in a week private text exchanges, critical of the prime minister, have been leaked. On Tuesday, Morrison was blindsided when the Ten Network’s political editor, Peter van Onselen, used a televised question and answer session at the National Press Club to reveal private criticism of Morrison.
Van Onselen told Morrison he had a record of a text message exchange between a party colleague and the former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian in which she branded the prime minister a “horrible person” who was untrustworthy.
“The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and ‘a complete psycho’,” Van Onselen said. “Does this exchange surprise you? And what does it tell us?”
Van Onselen later said the conversation was between Berejiklian and a federal minister.
The prime minister’s office confirmed in a statement on Friday night that Joyce had approached Morrison earlier this week to inform him of the critical text messages sent when he was on the backbench.
Joyce returned to the Nationals leadership in July 2021 after toppling Michael McCormack in a leadership spill. At the time, he said he returned to lead the Nationals a “better person” after spending three years on the backbench.
In a statement, Morrison said after telling him about the messages, Joyce “sincerely apologised and I immediately accepted his apology in good faith”.
“I understand Barnaby was in a different headspace last year, both professionally and personally, and so I know he genuinely no longer feels this way. Relationships change over time. Politicians are humans beings too. We all have our frailties and none of us are perfect.
“Since coming to the role of deputy prime minister, it is fair to say that we both positively surprised each other. We were never close before this and never pretended to be. But in these roles we have really found our rhythm, as we have concluded Aukus, settled our climate change policy and continued to fight the pandemic.”
In a separate statement, Joyce said: “In the last 24 hours I have become aware that a screenshot of a text message has been circulating among third-parties that contains comments I made in March 2021 when I was a backbencher.
“While the text message was supposed to be private, what I said in that message was wrong; and I have unreservedly apologised to the prime minister for my comments,” the deputy prime minister said.
“It is 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.”
Earlier in the week, Joyce had blasted the anonymous critic of Morrison and urged the person to reveal their identity. “I would suggest that if you know anything about this don’t wait to be outed,” Joyce told reporters on Wednesday.
“And give an explanation. Maybe it was a bad day in the office, I don’t know. That’s a better way to do it. It getting out is one good rump steak, with horseradish sauce, vegetables and chips, two bottles of red wine, and some journo is going to say ‘You know who told me that? Blah blah blah.’ And she’s out.”
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On Wednesday, Morrison said he had “confidence” the person who leaked the messages to Van Onselen was not in his federal cabinet. When asked if his office would investigate the leak he replied: “I’m not fussed.”
The revelation of the text message from Joyce caps off a difficult week for the prime minister. Morrison had hoped his speech to the National Press Club would be a political reset after a difficult summer battling the Omicron variant – but that outing was overshadowed by the text exchange, and an ensuing 48 hours where cabinet colleagues lined up to deny they had made the criticism.
Federal parliament returns next week, and Morrison plans to call an election after the government has delivered a budget in March. Published opinion polls suggest Labor would defeat the Morrison government if an election were held today.
