If you’ve been keeping an eye on the happenings in Australian politics lately, you might have heard about the scandal that has been following Barnaby Joyce lately. Well, while Joyce has managed to keep his job, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has just announced a ban on sexual relations between ministers and staffers.

Recently, it emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce’s former media adviser was pregnant with his child, and now living with him following the hushed announcement that Joyce had separated from his wife.

Understandably, this caused a media frenzy, with countless calls for Joyce to step down from his role as Deputy PM, and many criticising him for his behaviour.

Today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull addressed the issues, calling Joyce’s behaviour “a shocking error of judgement” that had “set off a world of woe”, and announcing that Joyce was on leave for next week, as he tended to his family and partner after a week of intense media scrutiny.

However, the most shocking aspect to come out of today was Mr. Turnbull’s announcement of a total ban on sexual relations between ministers and their staffers, as the ABC reports.

“Today, in 2018, it is not acceptable for a minister to have a sexual relationship with somebody who works for them, it is a very bad workplace practice and everybody knows that no good comes of it,” Mr. Turnbull said. “This is the standard that I will hold — from this day forth — all my ministers to.”

“We have to recognise that here in this place we have such important responsibilities and we don’t, in practical terms, have the privacy that many others do, we have to acknowledge that we must have a higher standard,” he continued.

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