Vikki Campion, a News Corp columnist and spouse of One Nation federal MP Barnaby Joyce, has begun working as a consultant for One Nation in New South Wales. Her new role comes ahead of the state’s March elections.
Campion on Tuesday assisted the state’s leader, One Nation’s Mike Newman, at a press conference in the Hunter region. Guardian Australia reported that she began working with the party’s state executive as an external consultant, providing media advice on a part-time basis this week.
She stated that she is publicly married to Barnaby and that the public is aware of her connection to One Nation through numerous media reports. She noted that she has worked for approximately six years as a political external consultant on various campaigns, while simultaneously writing and managing a farm. She added that she reports to the state executive, which is a separate body from the federal One Nation, and that she has previously worked for the state branch of the National Party in a similar arrangement.
Campion writes a weekly column for the Saturday Telegraph, the latest of which was published on 9 October. When asked if she would reveal in future columns in that publication that she works for the party, she said that as a columnist, she does not believe anyone who has read her column would be surprised that she is helping One Nation. After Guardian Australia raised questions about her work with the party, the Daily Telegraph published an article about her new role. Campion told the Daily Telegraph that the new role is a natural extension of her career as a conservative commentator, and the newspaper stated that she would continue to write her weekly column, which appears every Saturday, as a contributor. Following the conversation with The Guardian, Campion posted on social media about her role, stating that the party is a phenomenon and something Australian politics has not seen for a long time.
Campion previously worked as a media advisor to Joyce when he was deputy prime minister. The couple married in 2023. Joyce announced in late 2017 that he and his first wife had separated. The Daily Telegraph subsequently published a photograph of a pregnant Campion on its front page in February 2018. In an interview on ABC’s Australian Story in August, Campion said she felt suicidal during the press conference held by the then prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, after the story broke. ABC apologised to Campion after a clip from an episode in which Campion spoke about her experience of postpartum depression was published on the ABC News Instagram account without comments being disabled.
Joyce, the federal MP for New England, crossed from the National Party to One Nation last December. The revelation about Campion’s work for the party followed News24 reporting that another prominent former coalition figure, 2022 Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves, would be standing for the upper house in the NSW elections. Deves had previously announced that she joined One Nation in September. She said she received death threats after her comments about transgender people emerged during the 2022 campaign. After News24 reported that Deves would stand for the upper house, One Nation issued a statement confirming only three candidates. These are Newman and upper house candidates Stuart Bonds and Jeff Bacon, a Tamworth-based firearms manufacturer. A spokesperson said One Nation had received more than 800 applications from community leaders, advocates and business people. Campion told Guardian Australia that she does not plan to be a candidate for the party. One Nation and the Saturday Telegraph were contacted for comment.
