In hindsight, it is now easy to see Joyce’s citizenship entanglement as a mere bureaucratic oversight, a busy man innocently failing to explore his own nationality. 

These mistakes are easy to make. Revealing the complexities of his personal life after the by-election, rather than before it, might have also been a mistake. A drover’s dog could have won the seat for The Nationals and Joyce could have avoided the impression of deceit.

Of course his personal life was “private”, and not really any of our business. Okay, it didn’t seem a tight fit with his traditional family values stance, but there was never a suggestion that his performance as Member for New England and Deputy Prime Minister was in any way affected by having an extra-marital affair with one of his own staff.

Sure, calling a press conference to raise doubts about the identity of the father of his new partner’s unborn child, otherwise known as “his child”, was, well … a grey area, bizarrely inappropriate, but all in the name of clearing the air. What’s the crime?

And those allegations of sexual misconduct that plague him have yet to be substantiated, and fair play demands that we consider him innocent until proven otherwise. 

But, unfortunately, the benefit of the doubt for Joyce can only stretch so far. His recent confession that he was “wrong” in resisting calls, even from deep within his own party, for a royal commission into the banking sector because he was “naive” and under the false impression that banks were “good corporate citizens” just simply beggars belief.

“Naive”! Until recently he was the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. Not sure naivity is what we’re looking for there.

Joyce has positioned himself as a champion of the people of “weatherboard and iron”. Well, I’m pretty certain those who live in weatherboard and iron houses are not in the least “naive” when it comes to banks, or surprised at the self-interested and criminal activity that is being revealed by the royal commission. 

To start waving a flag and calling for a major shake-up of the banking sector now is, well, as weak as water. Joyce has been making some bad decisions. He needs to start making some good ones.

Simon Bourke is a Fairfax journalist