EXCLUSIVE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in “clearly difficult circumstances” after Daily Mail Australia revealed video of the MP lying on the road muttering incoherent profanities.
On Friday, Daily Mail Australia published exclusive video of the New England MP lying on the sidewalk on Lonsdale Street in the Canberra suburb of Braddon on Wednesday at 11:26 p.m.
The former deputy prime minister could be heard muttering into the phone while on his back on the ground, including one outburst in which he said: “F***ing dead.”
Sources told Daily Mail Australia that the Nationals leader was sitting in a large flower pot having a lively phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell, “rolled” on the floor and continued the phone conversation.
Barnaby Joyce could be seen on the sidewalk while talking on the phone (pictured)
He could be heard saying ‘dead, f**king c**t’ over the phone on Wednesday night (pictured)
The images sparked calls for the former deputy prime minister to be removed from the Nationals bench, with the prime minister saying Joyce needed to explain himself.
The prime minister stressed he had never been in a similar situation, telling Perth radio 6PR: “Not in that position.”
He added: “That is a matter for Barnaby Joyce to explain.” I think it’s his issue.
“I have no intention of commenting on the clearly difficult circumstances for Barnaby Joyce.”
Joyce tried to laugh off the shocking video, joking Friday: “If I’d known there was someone there with a camera, I would have gotten up quicker.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in ‘clearly difficult circumstances’
But other critics have now called for the Canberra veteran to leave politics following the incident.
Academic and political author Jenny Hocking hit out at the Nationals MP on social media, adding: ‘Is this the standard Dutton accepts on his front bench?
“Barnaby Joyce needs help and needs to show leadership and remove him as Shadow Minister for Veterans Affairs.”
His comments come after the witness who filmed him attacked the politician’s wife after she accused them of not caring.
Campion told media she was “half asleep” when her husband called her and criticized the witness for not asking her if she needed help.
“It’s disgusting that when I was in need they couldn’t even check to see if I was okay,” he said.
But the witness responded and said there was no evidence that Joyce needed help.
“Joyce seemed relaxed and happy lying on the side of the road and didn’t seem to need any help,” the source said.
In the video, Joyce could be seen lying on the sidewalk with his legs raised and his jacket spread out.
He was wearing the same blue and white tie he wore during Question Time in Parliament earlier that day.
Campion said her husband wasn’t referring to her when he called someone “f***ing dead” during the phone call.
“I think he called himself one, he likes to self-flagellate,” she said.
Joyce described the scene as “very embarrassing” in a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
“I was walking back to my accommodation after Parliament rose at 10pm,” he said.
‘While talking on the phone I sat on the edge of a flower pot, fell, continued talking on the phone and very animatedly referred to myself for falling.
“I got up and walked home.”
The couple married in a party-style wedding at their family property in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, in November.
Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his wife Vikki Campion on Tuesday, the day before the scene on Lonsdale Street.
Barnaby and Vikki at their bush-bash wedding
Joyce did not ask any questions in Parliament on Wednesday.
On Thursday he spoke to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt about how he thinks the Australian Defense Force should acquire more drones.
Earlier this week he spoke at an anti-renewable energy demonstration outside Parliament.
It is not the first time that Joyce’s strange antics have attracted public attention.
During Question Time 2021, he appeared to slur his words while answering a question about infrastructure construction in regional New South Wales.
He decided to attack the then opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, with a bizarre reference to The Aviator, a 2004 Hollywood film about American pilot Howard Hughes.
“Now, I, I, I like, I like to go to the movies and I can’t, I can’t stop always remembering Howard Hughes, Howard Hughes the aviator,” he said.
Barnaby Joyce can be seen in Parliament on Wednesday wearing the same blue and white tie.
Barnaby Joyce appears in Bolt’s report on Thursday, the day after his “embarrassing” sidewalk phone call.
“But Howard Hughes, the aviator, but the Labor Party got Albo, the advocate, the great, the great advocate, the man of the big ideas, the man of the big ideas, straight from the pool room.”
Albanese said Joyce’s comments had “nothing to do with the question.”
Later that year, he appeared to use a word that didn’t exist.
Joyce was trying to discipline Labor members for hurling “demeaning” jibes at some of his MPs.
“It might draw attention to some of the derogatory ridicule that has gone on in the chamber towards a person who has been a very accomplished businessman, who has been behind the great city of Gladstone,” he said.
‘There is a sneer towards the Flynn member.
‘There is a derogatory sneer towards the people of the big city of Gladstone and the people of central Queensland.
Viewers took to social media to ask why he was using a made-up word.
Hansard, the written record of proceedings and debates in Parliament, published a transcript of his speech which claimed Joyce was saying “mocking” rather than “denigrating”.
Joyce’s video comes after increased scrutiny over parliamentary standards and work culture in the nation’s capital in recent years.
Under the code of standards for parliamentarians, members have a “shared responsibility for ensuring that Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces meet the highest standards of integrity, dignity, safety and mutual respect”.
The code and standards apply to all tasks performed during a member’s employment, including at social events, while traveling for work, and outside of normal business hours.
“Alcohol is no excuse for violating this code or the rules,” the code says.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has been contacted for comment.
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