Canberra, Feb 23 (UNI) Barnaby Joyce will resign as Deputy PM and Nationals leader at a party meeting on Monday, an ABC News report said on Friday.
Mr Joyce says he's standing aside to protect his new partner and family.

Mr Joyce has faced sustained pressure to step down after revelations of his affair with a former staffer became public.
In a separate matter, Mr Joyce is also the subject of a sexual harassment claim received by the Nationals.
Mr Joyce explained his decision to quit the frontbench, saying there had to be some "clear air".
He said he would resign at a meeting of the Nationals in Canberra on Monday morning.
Mr Joyce said he would sit on the backbench and would not be resigning from Parliament.
He informed acting Prime Minister Mathias Cormann of his decision to stand down on Friday.
Mr Joyce has not said who should replace him as leader and deputy prime minister, but Veterans Affairs Minister Michael McCormack is the leading contender.
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Reflecting on his leadership, Mr Joyce said it had been an incredible privilege to have been deputy prime minister. But he said he had faced a litany of allegations, although he believed none of them had been sustained.
He acknowledged the controversy had left him with little choice.
"It is quite evident that you can't go to the dispatch box while issues like that are surrounding you," Mr Joyce told reporters in Armidale in his electorate of New England.
He thanked the people of his electorate and said people were backing him even though he suspected some of them did not vote for him.
"People literally running up and someone crying, offering their support to me," Mr Joyce said.
"I don't deserve the support that you have given me.
"At the end, no not hard at all," he said of his dramatic decision to walk away from his powerful roles.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull issued a brief statement thanking Mr Joyce for his service, describing him as a "fierce advocate for rural and regional Australia".
Mr Turnbull said the Coalition between the Liberals and the Nationals remains "undiminished".
The Prime Minister is in the United States, but had made it clear in the past week that he was angry with Mr Joyce.
Mr Joyce emphasised that standing down was aimed at protecting his new partner who is due to have their baby in April, as well as his estranged wife and daughters.
He said his resignation as leader would act as a circuit breaker. "It has got to stop. This has got to stop and it is not fair on them," he said.
Media coverage has been intense with national newspapers running the story prominently for well over a week.
Mr Joyce described the reporting as completely and utterly unwarranted, but found some humour in the situation.
He said the controversy also had to end for the sake of the "poor buggers who are parked outside my house every day", referring to the lurking media.
He said the media should not expose private relationships in the way it had scrutinised his.
He apologised to his pregnant partner Vikki Campion, who was photographed on the front page of the Daily Telegraph newspaper earlier this month.
"The idea that for Vikki, walking across the road as a pregnant lady and just being put under so much pressure, I thought that is not who we are in Australia," he said.
"That's not the kind of people we are. I am the public figure — go after me. That is what I get paid for.
"But don't go after private individuals. It is just wrong."
Resignation timeline:
7 February – Sydney’s Daily Telegraph breaks the story that Joyce is expecting a baby with Vikki Campion, a former staffer. Campion, a former journalist, began an affair with Joyce while she worked as his media adviser.
10 February – Joyce reveals that he and Campion lived in a rent-free apartment in Armidale provided by his friend Greg Maguire, a local businessman.
13 February – Pressure mounts over a job that Campion was given by Nationals colleague Matt Canavan, after she and Joyce began their relationship. Joyce declares it is above board because Campion was “not his partner” at the time.
14 February – A small group of Nationals MPs considers asking Joyce to resign as leader, but the movement fizzles.
15 February – Malcolm Turnbull announces that Joyce will be taking a week of leave, and will not become the acting prime minister while he is away. Hours later, he announces a ban on sex between ministers and staffers. He is scathing of Joyce’s relationship – calling it “a shocking error” that unleashed “a world of woe”.
16 February – Joyce fires back and the prime minister and his deputy spend the day duelling through rival press conferences. Joyce calls Turnbull “inept”. Turnbull doubles down.
19 February – Nationals MP Michael McCormack, seen as a frontrunner to replace Joyce, refuses to pledge his loyalty. He will say only that there is no challenge “at the moment”. A Newspoll finds 65% of voters think Joyce should resign.
20 February – The West Australian branch of the Nationals calls on Joyce to resign.
21 February – Joyce – still technically on leave – offers an exclusive interview in which he tells the media to “move on” and respect the privacy of his unborn son.
22 February – Nationals MP Andrew Broad becomes the first federal MP to call for Joyce to step down as leader.
23 February – Another MP, Andrew Gee, withdraws support for Joyce and declares “all bets are off”, after the Daily Telegraph reports that Joyce has been hit by a sexual harassment claim.
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