By Hannah Moore For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 06:42 BST, 22 April 2019 | Updated: 06:42 BST, 22 April 2019
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Political journalist Patricia Karvelas has been slammed for reading out a text from Barnaby Joyce live on air.
Ms Karvelas was discussing water buybacks during Insiders on Sunday - an initiative that saw the government pay $80 million to a company called Eastern Australia Agriculture - which has ties to Energy Minister Angus Taylor - in 2017.
The revelation of Mr Taylor's connection to the company has led to hard questions for the government, and Labor has capitalised on the scandal, with Bill Shorten promising a royal commission into the Murray-Darling basin plan if he becomes Prime Minister in next month's Federal Election.
As Ms Karvelas discussed the issue on an insiders panel on Monday morning, she received a text from former deputy PM and then- Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce, which he asked her to read out on air.
'I've just received a text message that he would like read out from Barnaby Joyce saying: 'You have to go to the market and purchase what people are willing to sell. It wasn't compulsory buybacks. It was voluntary buybacks. I insist that I was not involved in the negotiations',' she said.
Ms Karvelas was immediately slammed online, with Twitter users questioning why she had Joyce's direct phone number and one woman calling her behaviour a 'Trump/ Fox tactic'.
'I'm sorry but since when can politicians tweet an answer to a journalist and have it read verbatim,' she asked.
