Not only did The Daily Telegraph exposé of Barnaby Joyce’s affair and pregnancy with a staffer lead to the political demise of the popular deputy prime minister, it also led to an extraordinary prime ministerial decree banning ministers from having relationships with their staff. The Telegraph’s Bundle of Joyce had a seismic impact throughout the nation, especially in Canberra. It took Sharri Markson, Christopher Dore and Kylar Loussikian 10 months to verify the story and get it into print. The Telegraph followed up with reports that, at the height of the affair, Mr Joyce had shuffled Ms Campion into the offices of two of his subordinates in order to secretly continue the relationship without breaching ministerial rules.
Sharri Markson is the national political editor for The Daily Telegraph and a host and commentator on Sky News. She is a former media editor and senior writer at The Australian and former editor of CLEO Australia. She won a Walkley for TV news reporting while news editor at Seven News Sydney.
Christopher Dore was appointed editor-in-chief of The Australian in October 2018 after editing The Daily Telegraph for three years. He has also served as editor of The Courier-Mail and Perth’s The Sunday Times, and as deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph.
Kylar Loussikian is currently the CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He was previously the national political reporter with The Daily Telegraph and a state political reporter and business writer at The Australian.