Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has apologised for calling Prime Minister Scott Morrison "a hypocrite and a liar" in a text message that was passed on to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins.
The message was sent to a third person in March last year, as Ms Higgins's allegation of rape in Parliament House dominated headlines around the nation.
It read:
"Tell BH [Brittany Higgins] I and Scott, he is Scott to me until I have to recognise his office, don't get along.
"He is a hypocrite and a liar from my observations and that is over a long time.
"I have never trusted him and I dislike how he earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie."
Mr Joyce, the current Nationals leader, was a backbencher at the time he sent the messages and his personal views about Mr Morrison were relatively well-known in political circles.
But the publication of them now is another damaging blow for the Prime Minister and it threatens to exacerbate divisions within the Coalition government, which trails in opinion polls just months out from an election.
Mr Morrison has now repeatedly had his honesty and integrity questioned by people who have worked closely with him, including by his predecessor Malcolm Turnbull.
He is under pressure ahead of parliament's return next week, over the growing number of COVID-related deaths in aged care, a fight over religious freedom legislation, a summer marked by the rapid spread of Omicron and a shortage of rapid tests.
Texts made public after Joyce's comments
Ms Higgins shared the message from Mr Joyce with Nine Newspapers on Wednesday and they were first published late on Friday.
She did so after Mr Joyce weighed into this week's other message-related controversy – the leak of two-year-old derogatory texts purportedly between an anonymous federal cabinet minister and the former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian.
After parts of the texts were read out by Channel Ten's political editor during Mr Morrison's National Press Club address in Canberra on Tuesday, the Deputy Prime Minister had demanded the minister publicly out themselves.
"I would suggest that if you know anything about this don't wait to be outed, out yourself," he declared.
After realising his own messages were likely to be revealed, Mr Joyce "apologised" to the PM, conceding the text message, although intended to be private, was wrong.
"I have unreservedly apologised to the Prime Minister for my comments," he said.
"It is common knowledge that in the past the Prime Minister and I had not always seen eye to eye.
"But I have worked extremely closely with the Prime Minister over the last seven months since I returned to the role of Deputy Prime Minister; and the Prime Minister is a person of high integrity and honesty in what is possibly the most difficult job in the nation."
In response, Mr Morrison said he had already accepted the apology.
"I understand Barnaby was in a different headspace last year, both professionally and personally, and so I know he genuinely no longer feels this way," the Prime Minister claimed in a statement.
"Relationships change over time. Politicians are humans beings too. We all have our frailties and none of us are perfect.
"Since coming to the role of DPM, it is fair to say that we both positively surprised each other. We were never close before this and never pretended to be.
"But in these roles, we have really found our rhythm, as we have concluded AUKUS, settled our climate change policy and continued to fight the pandemic."
Mr Joyce is due to appear on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday for a lengthy interview, while Ms Higgins is due to speak with 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame at the Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
The government had hoped to use this week to reset the national political debate and focus on Australia's relatively strong economic position.
But it has not gone at all to plan and a number of Coalition parliamentarians fear simmering divisions over a range of issues will be on public display when they return to the national capital for Parliament on Tuesday.
