Barnaby Joyce officially resigned Monday as Australia’s deputy prime minister, clearing the way for a replacement — Michael McCormack, the veterans affairs minister — who was named to the post in an awkward news conference that included Joyce sulking in the back of a National Party gathering he had grown used to leading.
It was an embarrassing public comedown for Joyce, a brash conservative closely identified with the country’s rural voters.
He has been battling scandals that started earlier this month with his admission of an affair with a former staff member, who is pregnant with his child.
His trouble continued with accusations of misspending of public funds, in part to abet that relationship, along with at least two separate accusations of sexual harassment that have stirred up demands for a #MeToo reckoning across Australian politics.
Joyce has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. He has said he plans to stay in Parliament. But questions about his behavior continue to swirl.
Here is a look back at Joyce’s path to resignation, and the scandals that continue to dog him.
— Affair Puts Spotlight on Australia’s Crony Culture
Joyce’s affair with his staff member quickly snowballed from a sex scandal to something more significant: A symbol of the insular, booze-fueled and secretive culture of Canberra, Australia’s capital.
“This whole incident is absolutely tailor-made to undercut people’s faith in the Parliament, which is already at an all-time low,” said Susan Harris Rimmer, a law professor at Griffith University in Queensland.
— Defying Pressure to Quit
Joyce resisted resigning for weeks — even after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull scolded him in public and after complaints about sexual harassment began to emerge.
“This was a personal issue, a personal issue that’s been dragged into the public arena,” Joyce said on Feb. 16. “I don’t believe people should be resigning in any job over personal issues.”
— A Loss in Confidence
But just a few days after Joyce made that statement, the mood had shifted. His colleagues in the National Party were no longer confident he had the capacity to lead, and Joyce agreed to step aside.
“This current cacophony of issues has to be put aside, and I think it’s my responsibility to do my bit to make sure that happens,” Joyce said at a news conference.
— Is Australia’s Media Too Prudish for a Sex Scandal?
Joyce’s affair was widely known among the press corps in Canberra, Australia’s capital, but not publicly disclosed even as voters went to the polls.
In an op-ed that examined Australia’s media culture, Amelia Lester, an Australian journalist who has edited one of Australia’s most-read weekly magazines, asked whether the Joyce affair might “finally prompt Australian journalists to decide that the affairs of politicians are questions of public interest.”
“At issue,” she added, “is whether voters have a right to know that a candidate espousing traditional values, and specifically the sanctity of marriage, has not been upholding them in his own life.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.