SYDNEY: A major rift opened up in Australia’s fragile ruling coalition on Friday as Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce refused to quit over an affair with a staff member, and derided Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s condemnation of his behavior as “inept.”
Turnbull, whose coalition holds a razor-thin majority of just one seat, said on Thursday Joyce, had shown a “shocking error of judgment” for conducting the affair with his former press secretary, who is now pregnant, and called on his deputy to consider his position.
The comments were seen as a thinly veiled call for the National Party leader to resign from cabinet, but Joyce, a married father of four who had campaigned on “family values,” said on Friday he had the support of his colleagues to continue.
Joyce leads the rural-based National Party, the junior partner in the center-right government led by Turnbull’s Liberal Party, a political alliance that has existed since 1923.
“Comments by the prime minister yesterday at his press conference, I have to say that in many instances, they caused further harm,” Joyce told a press conference in Canberra, wearing his trademark bushman’s hat.
“I believe they were in many instances inept and most definitely in many instances unnecessary ... All that is going to do is basically pull the scab off for everybody to have a look at.”
Turnbull refused to comment on Joyce’s criticism but the public spat fuels pressure on the prime minister to sack his deputy, which would put the government’s one-seat majority at risk should he choose to leave parliament.
The Senate on Thursday passed a motion for Joyce to resign over the affair, saying he had breached standards of behavior expected of a minister.
Although lawmakers had previously been reluctant to criticize Joyce, a plain-spoken small-town accountant turned politician, he has come under pressure following revelations that his former staffer was given two highly paid jobs after leaving his office.
“This government is in crisis. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are at war with each other. This crisis cannot be allowed to continue. Malcolm Turnbull must sack the Deputy Prime Minister from the Cabinet,” said Bill Shorten, leader of Australia’s main opposition Labour Party.
Eager to draw a line under the scandal, Turnbull said he will change the ministerial conduct rules, new standards broadly similar to a ban on relationships between lawmakers and staffers adopted last week by US Congress.
Unlike the US rules, the Australian rules currently only relate to cabinet ministers and their direct subordinates, leading to criticism of the changes.
Cracks widen in Australian coalition as deputy PM calls Turnbull ‘inept’
Cracks widen in Australian coalition as deputy PM calls Turnbull ‘inept’
Afghanistan launches retaliatory attacks on Pakistan as tensions escalate
- At least 66 Afghans have been killed by Pakistan’s strikes, Afghan authorities say
- Afghanistan has called for dialogue while Pakistan ruled out any talks with Kabul
KABUL: Afghanistan has launched new attacks on Pakistan’s military bases, the Afghan defense ministry said on Saturday, as cross-border clashes escalated between the neighbors after months of tension.
The latest flare-up erupted after Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory last weekend triggered a retaliatory offensive from Afghanistan along the border on Thursday.
The two countries have engaged in tit-for-tat attacks since, marking the most serious development in ongoing tensions between the two countries, which agreed to a ceasefire last October following a week of deadly clashes.
Afghanistan’s Air Force has “once again launched airstrikes on Pakistani military bases” in Miranshah and Spinwam, the Afghan Ministry of National Defense said on X on Saturday, claiming that the strikes caused “severe damage and heavy casualties.”
“These successful operations were conducted in response to repeated aerial aggressions by the Pakistani military regime,” the ministry said.
Afghan forces also launched similar strikes against military targets in Islamabad and Abbottabad on Friday, which the ministry said was in retaliation of aerial attacks by Pakistani forces in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
At least 66 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Pakistani strikes, with another 59 others wounded, according to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Afghan government.
Pakistan has maintained that it is targeting only military targets to avoid any civilian casualties, in compliance with international law.
Pakistani officials said its forces have killed more than 330 Afghan fighters and targeted 37 military locations across Afghanistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, earlier called for talks to resolve the crisis.
“We have always emphasized peaceful resolution, and now too we want the issue to be resolved through dialogue,” he said on Friday.
However, Pakistan has ruled out any talks with Kabul.
“There won’t be any talks, there is nothing to talk about. There’s no negotiation. Terrorism from Afghanistan has to end,” Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s prime minister, said on Friday.
Pakistan is accusing the Afghan Taliban of sheltering fighters from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allowing them to stage cross-border attacks — a charge Afghanistan denies, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.
As international calls for mediation grow amid the escalating hostility, Afghans across the country are growing fearful of the violence.
“Everyone heard the jets. This is the first time since the withdrawal of US invaders that we have heard such a horrible noise and news of damage. It is not good for us,” said Kandahar resident Shahid Zamari.
“We had forgotten the US war and its bad impact on us, on our families, on our children. And now this has come upon us again — by Pakistan, and in the holy month of Ramadan.”
When the strikes hit Kabul at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday, Saleema Wardak moved quickly to wake up her six children and escape outside, assuming the strong jolt that shook her house was an earthquake.
“While standing in the yard, my husband told me it was not an earthquake but an explosion. Then we heard the crazy sounds of planes, and shooting from the mountains against the planes,” she told Arab News.
“We hid inside, worried another bomb would fall on us. People say Pakistan is targeting civilians on purpose to increase pressure on the Taliban. So we hid … The world is unjust … They do not value the blood of the poor.”
For Sabawoon, a 23-year-old student from eastern Kunar province’s Asadabad city, the coming days are filled with uncertainties.
“What to do? Where to go? We have to stay and find our way to survive,” he told Arab News. “God willing, nothing bad will happen to us. If they are bombing us, what can we do?”
