There are growing calls for Barnaby Joyce to resign from parliament after he was found lying on his back near a sewer and muttering profanities into his phone.
Daily Mail Australia revealed an exclusive video of the former deputy prime minister, 56, lying on the sidewalk on Lonsdale Street in the Canberra suburb of Braddon around midnight last Wednesday.
Sources said the Nationals leader was sitting in a large flower pot while having an animated telephone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell, “rolled” on the floor and continued his call.
Australians have demanded that Joyce resign after the embarrassing incident.
Mr Joyce (pictured) was found lying face up near a manhole and mumbling profanities into his phone.
Barnaby Joyce (right) and Vikki Campion (left) pictured at their wedding at Joyce Farm in Woolbrook.
“He takes Australians for granted and should have some dignity and resign,” one wrote.
Another added: “But we all know he won’t resign because he’s a greedy worm.”
A third wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “it is totally unacceptable and allowing it to continue is simply enabling his atrocious behavior.”
‘What other public employer would tolerate this farce? Resign,” they wrote.
Others mentioned what they saw as parallels to a famous Australian comic character.
“I don’t think Barry Humphries ever intended for people to emulate his character Sir Les Patterson,” one wrote.
‘Barnaby Joyce, you are a disgrace. Give up’.
Many people tried to show some sympathy for Joyce and at the same time said that he should leave politics.
‘Has Barnaby Joyce offered to resign and get help yet?’ asked one.
Another said his Coalition colleagues “are enabling his behaviour”. This man cannot hold elected office; he needs to resign and get help. He show some respect for yourself @Barnaby_Joyce.’
Colleagues have expressed concern about his health, and opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor said Joyce’s well-being must be the top priority.
“Look, people like to jump to conclusions about these things and I certainly won’t do that and I don’t think anyone should,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday morning.
‘I think the main issue for us is Barnaby’s wellbeing and we will continue to focus on that. I will certainly continue to focus on that.
“He was clearly not (well) at the time.”
Opposition Veterans Affairs spokesperson Joyce downplayed the video as “embarrassing” and said it had fallen from a planter after walking home from a late-night parliamentary function.
“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.”
Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his wife Vikki Campion on Tuesday, the day before the scene on Lonsdale Street.
Barnaby Joyce appears in Bolt’s report on Thursday, the day after his “embarrassing” sidewalk phone call.
A fake plaque (pictured) appeared at the spot where Barnaby Joyce fell last Wednesday night.
But to compound that embarrassment, over the weekend a fake plaque appeared at the spot where he fell.
The artist was in such a hurry that he got the date wrong and said it happened in January, instead of February.
One local who saw it told Daily Mail Australia that “it’s pretty funny.” Everyone stops and laughs.
“It’s stuck, so it’s going to be there for a while.”
Although this is cause for some laughter among the public, the Government has been careful not to appear to be taking advantage of the situation.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was an opposition matter but asked Mr Joyce to come forward and explain his behavior to the public.
‘I know people will have fun with this, but from a personal point of view, I don’t like to see anyone in that state. “I find it a little disturbing,” Dr Chalmers told Sky News on Sunday.
Peter Campion (pictured left with Barnaby Joyce) said he was disgusted by the way his son-in-law was treated.
I’m not going to attack Barnaby for that. You need to explain it.
Peter Campion, father of Joyce’s wife Vikki Campion, said the former deputy prime minister had received a devastating message shortly before the incident.
“He had some very bad family news that day,” Campion told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday.
‘He already lost a brother to cancer, that’s what you have to start with. He had similar very bad news, which is not my place to divulge but of the same magnitude and it affected him deeply.
‘As my daughter said, he was in a very, very bad place and was deeply depressed.
‘Any decent person who came across someone in that situation, so sad that they let themselves collapse on the road, would stop and help, not just take a video clip and sell it to the media.
“The most important part of this story was not that Barnaby was an emotional wreck along the way, but the lack of caring character of his countrymen, his fellow Australians.”