Australia PM Scott Morrison hit by damaging ‘hypocrite and liar’ text leak

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison, lagging in the polls before an election later this year, is dealing with the fallout from a leaked text message from his deputy Barnaby Joyce branding the premier “a hypocrite and a liar”.

Joyce has apologised for the texts, which were sent in March last year before he took the deputy prime minister role. Details of the messages were reported in the Australian newspaper on Saturday. He said he had offered his resignation, which Morrison had rejected.

“I should never have written the texts that I did,” Joyce said at a press conference, adding that he had not expected them to end up in the public domain. Joyce said his views on Morrison had changed since getting to know him on a one-on-one professional basis as his deputy.

The leak comes at a difficult time for Morrison, who has been criticised for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A survey by Newspoll last Sunday showed the ruling centre-right coalition trailed the opposition Labor Party by 56 per cent to 44 per cent, with Morrison’s approval rating falling to its lowest point since February 2020. An election must be called before the end of May under Australian law.