Barnaby Joyce has blamed mixing prescription drugs with alcohol after an embarrassing video showed him lying on his back near a gutter 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.
Joyce was forced to address the video during an appearance on Sunrise with Natalie Barr.
“How are you?” Barr asked awkwardly.
Mr Joyce replied: “Look, obviously, I made a big mistake.” There is no excuse for it. There is a reason. And it was an eventful ride home, wasn’t it? I’m taking a prescription medication and they say certain things can happen to you if you drink (take it), and they were absolutely right. They did it.’
Barr continued to probe Mr. Joyce: “So you mixed alcohol with prescription drugs, right, and this is what happened?”
Joyce replied: “That’s exactly what I said, yes.”
Barr then asked: ‘Are you a little angry because you were lying on the ground and someone filmed you and no one helped you?’
Joyce said, ‘Well, that’s a question for them, you know? For me, the good Samaritan was… it was the Indian taxi driver who stopped while I was walking home and said, ‘Do you need a ride, buddy?’, which I obviously did.’
More to come.