The decision by The Daily Telegraph to track down and photograph Barnaby Joyce's pregnant former staffer has again raised the question - when is it appropriate to report on a politician's extra marital activities?
And the answer is always the same. There is no simple answer.
Canberra is full of rumours, constantly. So-and-so is supposedly fooling around, or an appalling pants man. There are rumours about MPs who supposedly use hookers when in town for parliamentary sitting weeks, or that they are really gay, and so forth.
Some are probably true, many false, peddled for malevolent reasons. To chase them all down would be a full-time job.
The front page of tomorrow's The Daily Telegraph pic.twitter.com/u2ebtg3G4d
— Anthony De Ceglie (@AnthDeCeglie) February 6, 2018
In 2012, a persistent rumour being peddled from with conservative ranks was that then Labor minister Bill Shorten had had an affair with a staffer called Shannon who had become pregnant. Despite Shannon being a bloke, the rumour persisted. One clown on Twitter alluded to it again today.
Unlike its counterparts abroad, the Australian media has never really adopted the approach of chasing the private lives of politicians, if only because the media industry - editors, columnists and journalists - is far from pure. Glass houses and all that.
Political reporting, in that sense, is not that different to the coverage of sport or business, fields in which plenty of people fool around.
Yet these stories are rarely reported unless there is a public interest or secondary consequence, such the dislocation caused when AFL footballer Wayne Carey was sacked from North Melbourne after being caught at a team barbecue with a teammates' wife.
In the business world, extra-marital affairs are becoming increasingly frowned upon, especially those regarded as an abuse of power by men.
Last year, AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and the board sent jitters through the business community after forcing out two of senior executives for having an office affair.
In politics, the convention has long been that there needs to be a direct public interest, such as a misuse of public money involved, for an affair to be deemed newsworthy.
For example, the squiring around of a mistress or paramour on the public purse.
Or when there is a rank hypocrisy that begs to be exposed. An MP who moralises about the sanctity of marriage and family values, while philandering on the side, is a ripe target for being outed.
One of the more marginal calls was made a decade-and-a-half ago by Laurie Oakes who revealed the affair between Gareth Evans and Cheryl Kernot.
Ms Kernot had defected to Labor from the Democrats but became a liability that impacted on the party and the leadership of Kim Beazley.
When she wrote a book detailing her lot, Oakes felt she was being dishonest for not revealing the real reason that led to her erratic behaviour - the end of her relationship with Evans.
Certainly Joyce is not guilty of moralising.
Late last year, when knowledge of his affair was well-known in Canberra, in his electorate, in Sydney newsrooms and all across social media, he was at pains not to moralise.
During the same-sex marriage debate, he kept a low profile. He opposed change and when asked for his views, would preface his comments with "I'm no saint...".
In wrapping up debate just before the vote was taken, he told Parliament his marriage was over.
Even when knowledge of Joyce's affair was commonplace, details were sketchy. It was rumoured his former staffer, Ms Campion, was pregnant but not by Mr Joyce.
Then it was rumoured she had had a termination. It was all very sordid. Mr Joyce's former political foe Tony Windsor took to Twitter frequently throughout the New England by-election to propagate innuendo.
Hurting most are Mr Joyce's wife Natalie and their four daughters. All those baying that this should have been reported should consider them, the innocent victims.
The Telegraph has its reasons for publishing the full details of Mr Joyce's private life. Typically, it has polarised views inside and outside the media and beyond. As a political leader who espouses conservative values, maybe Joyce should have to adhere to higher standards.
Christopher Pyne articulated the views of most politicians.
"I think one of the great things about Australia is that we haven't gone down this tabloid journalism, Fleet Street approach of the London and the UK press. I think it's a good testament to our democracy," he said.
"It's a great pity that this has happened to Barnaby Joyce and his family and it must be very traumatising for everyone, made much worse by being publicised on the front page of the newspapers.
"I agree with Anthony (Albanese) that we should argue a lot about good policy for Australia. MPs private lives, business people's private lives, journalists private lives should be off the record."
As one MP who cannot abide Joyce but whose own marriage fell apart noted. "Life's complicated".
