An explosive text message from Barnaby Joyce to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins was made public on Friday night, capping off a dire week for the Morrison government.

The text, sent to a third party with the instruction to send it on to Ms Higgins, branded the Prime Minister a liar and a hypocrite.

It came after the leaking of earlier texts, purportedly between an un-named cabinet minister and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, referring to the Prime Minister as a “horrible, horrible person” and a “psycho”.

The leaked messages, and the days of blame and counter-blame that followed, have been a distraction for the government, and threaten to dominate this week too, with Parliament resuming on Tuesday.

Today on Please Explain, political correspondent James Massola joins Bianca Hall to talk about those text messages, and what we can expect this week.