Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has urged the media to respect his family's privacy and "personal" business, a day after Fairfax newspapers published an interview in which Mr Joyce suggested he may not be the father of his partner's unborn child.
"Anything that's personal in nature is nobody else's business but mine and Vikki's," Mr Joyce told reporters in Tamworth on Monday.
Mr Joyce recently resigned as Nationals leader and deputy prime minister to sit on the Turnbull Government's backbench, after a weeks-long scandal over his affair with a former staffer.
On the weekend, Mr Joyce told Fairfax Media there was a "grey area" around whether he was the father of his now-partner Vikki Campion's baby, which is expected within months.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed questions about Mr Joyce's comments in the newspaper.
"The matters that are in the papers today relating to Barnaby and Ms Campion are matters for them to resolve and I don't have any comments to make on it at all," he told reporters in western Sydney on Sunday.
Asked if Mr Joyce was derailing the government's agenda, Mr Turnbull replied: "The only rail that we're focused on today is the north-south rail link ... and believe me, that's the one the people of western Sydney are focused on."
- with AAP
