A major rift opened has up in Australia's fragile ruling coalition as the Deputy Prime Minister refused to quit over an affair with a staff member.
Barnaby Joyce also derided Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's condemnation of his behaviour as "inept".
Mr Turnbull, who introduced a ban on sexual relationships between ministers and their staff, said Mr Joyce had shown "shocking error of judgment" by conducting an affair with his former press secretary, who is now pregnant.
Mr Turnbull, whose coalition holds a razor-thin majority of just one seat, also called on Mr Joyce to consider his position.
The comments were seen as a thinly veiled call for the National Party leader to resign from the cabinet.
However, Mr Joyce, a married father of four who had campaigned on "family values", said today he had the support of his colleagues.
Mr Joyce leads the rural-based National Party, the junior partner in the centre-right government led by Mr Turnbull's Liberal Party, a political alliance that has existed since 1923.
"Comments by the prime minister yesterday at his press conference, I have to say that in many instances, they caused further harm," Mr Joyce told reporters in Canberra.
"I believe they were in many instances inept and most definitely in many instances unnecessary... All that is going to do is basically pull the scab off for everybody to have a look at."
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Mr Turnbull refused to comment on Joyce's criticism but the public spat fuels pressure on him to sack his deputy, which would put the government's one-seat majority at risk should he choose to leave parliament.
The Senate passed a motion yesterday for Mr Joyce to resign, saying he had breached standards of behaviour expected of a minister.
Politicians had been reluctant to criticise Mr Joyce, a plain-spoken small-town accountant turned politician, but he came under pressure following revelations that the former press secretary was given two highly paid jobs after leaving his office.
