What's your take on the Barnaby Joyce saga?
Is it in the Australian public's best interest to learn more about Barnaby Joyce's private life, or is it just interesting for the Australian public?
Why would anyone in this day and age call an unborn child a “bastard?” There is no such thing as a bastard or illegitimate child. Whatever we may think of its parents..why label an innocent child?
My theory is.. these people are themselves.. miserable.. unfulfilled.. and feel the need to express their unhappiness and disgust with their own empty lives by attacking people who had no say in the circumstances they were born...even an unborn child...
Personally..I have never heard of the existence of a child born out of so called “wedlock” in my family..but does that make me better than others? No..because one’s circumstances do no determine their value or purpose. All children are precious…
It's bullying..
"who cares?"
you do, or you wouldn't yap on 
Oh ignore her Ray..the poor woman follows me around like this bit of toilet paper stuck to this woman's shoe....
Sad really..very sad...
I am really amazed that no one has again raised the Tony Burke carry on from a few years back.
Very little difference to Barnaby Joyce fiasco to my way of thinking; both married men who fell in love with a staffer. Only difference is Skye Laris did not get pregnant.
"Skye Laris, the partner of embattled Labor frontbencher Tony Burke, has hit out at a report about the couple’s extensive taxpayer-funded air travel, claiming that she was employed and promoted by Burke because she was “damn good” at her job.
Ms Laris said The Australian’s report on her joining Mr Burke on many trips during the time she worked as a staff had implied that she was employed and promoted by Mr Burke because she was female.
“It’s customary to keep your head down and turn the other cheek. For all the young women in politics so often accused of the same through whispering campaigns in corridors and coffee shop lines, I’ve chosen not to,” Ms Laris said in the post.
“We [women] are capable and we are damn good at our jobs and sometimes someone even acknowledges that by hiring us or promoting us.
“Yes, I ultimately fell in love with someone who did that.
Ms Laris was referring to her assuming the role as chief of staff to Mr Burke in early 2009, a job that also meant she had to travel with Mr Burke.
Mr Burke said yesterday that two senior officials also flew first class on a trip to Barcelona which put in a claim for $48,951. The Australian has been told that other departmental officials flew business class, but Mr Burke declined to comment further.
“The records for travel undertaken by departmental officials are held by the department, not Mr Burke’s office,” Mr Burke’s spokesman said.
Ms Laris was responding to a report in The Australian that revealed how she joined Mr Burke for the bulk of an overseas travel blitz that cost taxpayers $225,000 in 2008-09 alone.
She accompanied him in the first class cabin on a return trip to Barcelona to attend a “Food Security for All” forum, which involved six days of travel.
Ms Laris also accompanied Mr Burke in April 2009 on a 14-day trip to China and Italy to attend the Boao Forum for Asia and the “G8+G5 Outreach session” of the G8 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting. Mr Burke billed the taxpayer $58,722 for this extended tour.
Mr Burke’s travel claims have come under scrutiny because the finance spokesman has led the attack on former speaker Bronwyn Bishop.
Ms Laris said the report erred in saying “my linked in profile does not include that I was an adviser prior to being chief of staff in Tony’s office, when in fact it does, if you click on the entry”. In fact the reference to being an adviser is mentioned under the heading of “Chief of Staff — Minister Tony Burke ... January 2008 — March 2011 (3 years 3 months)”.
Mr Burke was married to Cathy Bresnan-Burke, his partner of more than 20 years, at the time of this travel, although Ms Laris split from her husband in late 2009.
Mr Burke then announced in February 2014 that he had separated from his wife in 2012 and that his new partner was Ms Laris. The couple became engaged earlier this year, Ms Laris announced on Facebook"
Tony Burke: sorry you started this attack?
Mr Burke’s expense claims show that in 2008-09 he racked up $225,000 in overseas travel costs. The Australian understands he was accompanied on most of these trips by Ms Laris. In January 2009, Mr Burke travelled with Ms Laris in his role as agriculture minister to attend a forum in Barcelona known as “Food Security for All”.
Italy and Spain were the favoured destinations of Tony Burke when he embarked on a ministerial travel extravaganza that included first-class flights with senior staffer Skye Laris, who is now his partner.
The two travelled in the first-class cabin while senior departmental advisers flew business class.
Mr Burke’s expenses for this six-day trip were $48,951.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Burke promoted Ms Laris from adviser to chief of staff and stipulated that she accompany him on all of his domestic and overseas trips.
A spokesman for Mr Burke said yesterday Ms Laris had been directed to attend the Barcelona meeting by the then chief of staff.
He said this was the only trip in which the two flew first class.
While he denied that any travel directive about Ms Laris had been made, the travel requirement went with the chief-of-staff role.
“No such stipulation was made. It was standard for Mr Burke’s chief of staff to travel with Mr Burke unless the chief of staff delegated the responsibility to another adviser,” the spokesman said.
Mr Burke has come under fire for taking his children with him on a business-class trip to Uluru. Yesterday, he admitted that such travel was “completely beyond community expectations” and pledged not to access these entitlements in the future.
Mr Burke separated from his wife, Cathy Bresnan-Burke, in 2012. His relationship with Ms Laris became public two years later.
He is now able to claim travel costs for Ms Laris and her two children from two previous relationships, as well as for his own three children.
“Ms Laris is registered as Mr Burke’s spouse and all of Mr Burke’s and Ms Laris’s children are registered as dependants with the Department of Finance,” Mr Burke’s spokesman said.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Burke asked the Finance Department to review his parliamentary expenses for trips made with his family, including a 2012 trip to Uluru that involved business-class airfares for his family.
Ms Laris also accompanied Mr Burke in April 2009 on a 14-day trip to China and Italy to attend the Boao Forum for Asia and the “G8+G5 Outreach session” of the G8 agriculture ministers’ meeting. Mr Burke billed the taxpayer $58,722 for this extended tour.
In the same year, Mr Burke travelled to the US and the Middle East at a cost of $81,000, and again to Italy at a cost of $47,286.
In his capacity as finance spokesman, Mr Burke has led the attack on former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, but a close examination of his expense claims reveals a host of excessive and questionable items.
Labor sources say Mr Burke has pushed the envelope on expense claims and this is why his records show numerous repayments over the years.
As previously revealed, Mr Burke has put in some of the highest claims for office facilities, averaging more than $280,000 a year for the past three year.
His June 2011 statement reveals a $309,900 bill for office fitout.
Ms Laris joined Mr Burke’s staff in early 2008 after having worked in a communications role for the Climate Institute.
Before the Climate Institute, she worked as a radio journalist for the ABC and as a media adviser to a state minister.
Mr Burke then promoted her to chief of staff in 2009 when she was 33 years old.
Ms Laris’s marriage broke down in late 2009. At the time, Mr Burke was married to Ms Bresnan-Burke, who was his partner of more than 20 years.
Ms Laris claims on her LinkedIn account that she was appointed chief of staff to Mr Burke in January 2008, but as Mr Burke’s spokesman has said, she did not hold this position at the time of the Barcelona trip in January 2009.
Ms Laris left Mr Burke’s office in March 2011 to join the activist group GetUp!, and in 2012 she moved into the role of director of digital for the ALP, based in Sydney.
Mr Burke yesterday revealed he took his children touring around Uluru with national park officials in 2012 on what he insists was a ministerial work trip, in which the then environment minister claimed the taxpayer-paid business-class airfares for his family to accompany him.
Mr Burke yesterday asked for the Finance Department review of his parliamentary expenses for trips made with his family “to verify that the rules have been properly observed”.
The criticism by independent MP Andrew Wilkie and others has not been that Mr Burke broke the rules, which allow MPs some business-class travel for their family, but that he opted to accept that class of travel for his children rather than asking his staff to request they fly economy.
He dodged questions as to why he did not insist his children be booked economy in the first place, and refused to immediately repay the thousands of dollars for their taxpayer-funded business class tickets, saying any such decision would be taken after the results from the Department of Finance review.
Mr Burke said he worked hard on the trip to Uluru and another to Cairns in his ministerial roles, meeting officials and on the Queensland trip travelling to Cape York by charter aircraft and to the Daintree.
He said that, on the Uluru trip, which did not produce any press releases or media coverage, he had to be discreet because of the nature of the issue with which he was dealing.
“We had a significant problem with the security of a number of deeply significant items of Aboriginal heritage there,” he said. “Irreplaceable items were in an environment that you could only describe as completely insecure.”
Mr Burke said that “for Uluru, I left the kids each day and went to work”. Under questioning from journalists, Mr Burke admitted he had in fact brought his three children in tow for some of the visit to the national park with rangers and officials.
Asked whether having his children present on such an trip might have been distracting, Mr Burke said he took a site-by-site approach. In areas designated as places of secret men’s business, he left his children back at the resort, he said.
Bill Shorten yesterday expressed confidence in Mr Burke. But former national secretary Bob Hogg yesterday lambasted Mr Burke on his Facebook page. Mr Hogg wrote: “Well Tony — you have given Abbott etc a little light relief. Just a trip or two. One to Uluru. All within the guidelines, but such judgment. “But then it’s only the old T (sic) payer who foots the business class bill. So no worries. Another of the NSW’s brothers setting an example.
“He’s a self satisfied smug one is Tony so he won’t get the point.”
" I suppose we are talking about the last of the messiahs though? We'll never see the likes of him again..
Fingers crossed that we don't!