CANBERRA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce on Tuesday downplayed rumors of a rift within the government.
The deputy prime minister said that ministers should be cut some slack after "a few beers," after leaked audio caught a cabinet MP speaking ill of his party's policies earlier this week.
Joyce, who is in London attending trade talks, said leaked audio of cabinet minister Christopher Pyne talking against the government's position on same-sex marriage was not "totemic" of a rift within the Liberal National Party (LNP) coalition government.
The coalition's second-in-command said comments made by MPs at "late-night functions" should be given "some latitude" especially if they've had a few beers.
"What someone says late at night after a function is not really consequential to where our nation is going," Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The deputy leader said the government remained committed to its current same-sex marriage policy of holding a plebiscite -- or public vote -- in due course.
"So how do we deal with the issue? You do it by a plebiscite. You say, now your vote is as good as mine. You get one vote. You get one vote, I get one vote," Joyce said.
"You don't need to lobby me. You need to lobby everybody else. Because we all just get one vote in this."
Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the government remains committed to a plebiscite.
