We’d be kidding ourselves if we said it wasn’t what everyone was talking, or at least thinking, about this week.
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I am of course talking about the much anticipated interview with Barnaby Joyce and his now-partner Vikki Campion on the Sunday Night program – along with the first glimpses of their son – all for a reported fee of $150,000.
The money, we have been informed, will go into a trust fund for baby Sebastian.
I liken it to a train wreck.
Not in that it will end badly, because we don’t know that, but the reality is you just can’t turn away no matter how much you want to.
For a man who’s stumbled from one uncomfortale (to say the least) situation to another – forced into a by-election, suffered the backlash over an affair with a staffer and the birth of their son – is this the final straw?
While his colleagues in the National Party have taken the high road – telling the rest of us they would not have taken the money for this interview – very few have been prepared to suggest that Mr Joyce might want to reconsider his future in politics altogether.
There’s been no talk of Barnaby stepping down, they told us.
Though they did concede the subject had probably been the topic of plenty of backroom discussion.
That was proved true on Friday, when at least some dissenting voices were heard.
When it comes to the electorate though – that’s a whole other ballgame.
The electorate has in the past shown great faith in their local member, voting him back in with an increased majority late last year.
Whether that faith will remain, quite frankly, remains to be seen.
Of course the other thing Mr Joyce will need to consider is his own health.
If the past few months have taken such a toll on his health – as has been reported this week, to the point where he has been forced to take medical leave – then perhaps it is time for him to reconsider his future, as the pressures of politics can be unrelenting.
We know it’s a tough gig, but all the media attention and speculation is a job-lot.
It’s not like Mr Joyce has been backwards in coming forwards in the past, despite his repeated requests for “privacy”.
You don’t tell everyone you want to be left alone and then sell your story to the highest bidder.