EXCLUSIVE
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in “obviously difficult circumstances” after Daily Mail Australia revealed a video of the MP sprawled by the road and mumbling incoherent profanities.
On Friday, Daily Mail Australia published an exclusive video of the New England MP lying on the footpath on Lonsdale Street, in the Canberra suburb of Braddon, at 11.26pm on Wednesday.
The former deputy prime minister could be heard mumbling on the phone as he lay flat on his back on the ground, including an outburst in which he said: ‘Dead f***ing c***’.
Sources told Daily Mail Australia the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on the large potted plant and having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, ‘rolled around’ on the floor and continued the phone call.
Barnaby Joyce was seen on the sidewalk talking on the phone (pictured)
He could be heard saying ‘dead f***ing c**t’ into the phone on Wednesday night (pictured)
The footage has prompted calls for the former deputy prime minister to be removed from the Nationals front bench, with the prime minister saying Mr Joyce should explain himself.
The Prime Minister insisted he had never been in a similar situation himself, telling Perth 6PR radio: “Not in that position.”
He added: ‘That is a matter for Barnaby Joyce to explain. I think that’s a matter for him.
“I do not intend to comment on what are clearly difficult circumstances for Barnaby Joyce.”
Mr Joyce has tried to laugh off the shocking video footage, joking on Friday: ‘If I had known someone was there with a camera I would have gotten up quicker.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in ‘obviously difficult circumstances’
But other critics have now called on the Canberra veteran to quit politics after the incident.
Academic and political author Jenny Hocking hit out at the Nationals MP on social media, adding: “Is this the standard Dutton will accept on his front bench?
‘Barnaby Joyce needs help and must show leadership and sack him as Shadow Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs.’
Her comments come after the witness who filmed him hit out at the politician’s wife after she accused them of not caring.
Mrs Campion told media she was ‘half asleep’ when her husband called her and criticized the witness for not asking if he needed help.
“It’s disgusting that when he was in distress they couldn’t even check to see if he was okay,” she said.
But the witness hit back, saying there was no evidence Joyce needed help.
“Joyce seemed relaxed and happy as she lay on the side of the road and did not appear to need any help,” the source said.
In the video, Joyce was seen lying on the sidewalk with his legs up and his jacket wide open.
He wore the same blue and white tie worn earlier that day during Question Time at Parliament House.
Mrs Campion said her husband was not talking about her when he called someone a ‘dead f***ing c**t’ during the phone call.
“I think that’s what he called himself, he likes to flog himself,” 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 when Parliament got up at 10pm,” he said.
‘While I was on the phone I sat on the edge of a planter, fell over, kept talking on the phone and very animatedly referred to myself as having fallen.
“I got up and walked home.”
The couple married in November in a bush bash-style wedding at his family’s estate in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands.
Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his wife Vikki Campion on Tuesday – the day before the Lonsdale Street scene
Barnaby and Vikki at their bush bash wedding
Joyce did not ask any questions in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
On Thursday he spoke to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt about how he thinks the Australian Defense Force should purchase more drones.
Earlier this week he addressed an anti-renewable energy rally outside Parliament House.
It’s not the first time Joyce’s bizarre antics have attracted public attention.
During Question Time in 2021, he appeared to slur his words while answering a question about building infrastructure in regional NSW.
He decided to attack 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 love it, I love going to the movies and I can’t help but again, I can’t help but always think of Howard Hughes, Howard Hughes the aviator,” he said.
Barnaby Joyce is seen at Parliament House on Wednesday wearing the same blue and white tie
Barnaby Joyce is pictured in the Bolt report on Thursday, the day after his ’embarrassing’ phone call on the sidewalk
“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 billiard room.”
Albanese said Joyce’s comments had “nothing to do with the question.”
Later that year he seemed to use a word that didn’t exist.
Joyce tried to discipline Labor members for making ‘despicable’ mocking comments about some of his MPs.
“I would perhaps like to draw some attention to some of the demeaning scorn that has been leveled in the room at an individual who has been a very accomplished businessman and who has stood behind the great city of Gladstone,” he said.
“There is a condescending smile on the member for Flynn.
“There’s a condescending smile on the people of the great city of Gladstone and the people of Central Queensland.
Viewers on social media wondered why he used a made-up word.
Hansard, the written record of parliament’s proceedings and debates, has released a transcript of his speech which claims Joyce said ‘mocking’ rather than ‘dishonouring’.
Mr Joyce’s video comes after increased scrutiny into parliamentary norms and workplace culture in the nation’s capital in recent years.
According to the Standards Code for Parliamentarians, members have a ‘shared responsibility to ensure that the Commonwealth’s parliamentary workplaces meet the highest standards of integrity, dignity, security and mutual respect’.
The Code and Standards apply to all duties performed during Members’ employment, including at social events, during work travel and outside normal business hours.
“Alcohol is not an excuse for violating this code or the standards,” the code says.
Nationals leader David Littleproud has been contacted for comment.
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