politics

This old Barnaby Joyce campaign advert just became painfully awkward to watch.

As news of the affair between Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and former staffer Vikki Campion reverberates through the country, an old ad of the senator’s has resurfaced and boy, it is cringeworthy.

With its resurgence, there are two lessons the 50-year-old Nationals member is quickly learning. One: Don’t joke about infidelity when you’re guilty of it yourself. Two: The internet, bless it, never forgets.

It’s a 2016 advertisement produced by the Nationals in support to Joyce, who was up against the former member Tony Windsor to win the seat of New England.

After almost a decade in the seat, Windsor resigned in 2013 to work with the then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Joyce held the seat for three years but, in 2016, Windsor contested once again.

Radio host Kate Langbroek made headlines when she said sleeping with a married man is a shitty thing to do. But isn’t she right?

The ad shows two women talking in a coffee shop when one receives a text from Windsor asking: “Hey New England, how about another chance?”

A conversation ensues, in which Windsor is accused of leaving a long relationship with this ‘woman’ (AKA New England) to pursue an affair with ‘another woman’ called Julia (AKA Gillard).

“He ran off with Julia.” “It ended badly.” “He wants another chance,” the women in the advertisement say to each other.

Oh, the irony.

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Watch the ‘original’ Barnaby Joyce ad below. Post continues after video.

Currently, Joyce is facing immense scrutiny over the timing of his affair with Campion, 33.

News of the affair was made public last week when The Daily Telegraph published a picture of Campion heavily pregnant with Joyce’s child.

The Deputy PM’s estranged wife, Natalie Joyce, said the affair had been ongoing since Campion was Joyce’s media adviser in 2016 – such an arrangement is a breach of ministerial standards.

On Tuesday he denied the romance began while she was in his employment.

Natalie and Joyce announced their separation in December last year. They have four children together and Joyce’s fifth child, with Campion, is due in April.

This is why the ad is so achingly appropriate.

The ad ends with the woman replying, “Not this time, Tony”. And we couldn’t agree more.

H/T: Junkee Media