Barnaby Joyce makes bombshell decision – and the one key detail no-one noticed during shameful incident that changed his life forever

Barnaby Joyce has claimed he was so embarrassed after a drunken night out earlier this year that he has sworn off alcohol for good.

Daily Mail Australia published exclusive video footage of the country’s 57-year-old former deputy prime minister lying on the sidewalk on Lonsdale Street, in the Canberra suburb of Braddon, at 11.26pm on a Wednesday evening in February.

Sources told this masthead that the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on a large planter and having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, ‘rolled around’ on the floor and continued his profanity-laden call.

Speaking from his office in Parliament House this week, Mr Joyce said he and Ms Campion had stopped storing alcohol in their home and he had not touched a drop since that night, in what he called a low point in his life.

‘I can’t remember large parts of the night. And that has never, ever happened to me before. And I never, ever want it to happen again,” he said The Sydney Morning Herald.

Joyce’s National Party MP colleagues said they have noticed a difference in his behavior since he returned to parliament after coalition leaders David Littleproud and Peter Dutton told him to take a break.

He claims that in his spare time he has taken up fencing, done manual farm work, lost 15kg and is ‘sharper’ than ever.

Mr Joyce also admitted that someone who looked closely at the footage told him his phone was upside down and that Ms Campion probably did not hear what he said.

Questions were raised about Mr Joyce’s ability to represent his constituents after the video, although some argued it would not damage the image of the man Tony Abbott once described as “Australia’s best retail politician”.

But Mr Joyce admitted this week: ‘I shamed myself and when I woke up the next morning I thought, ‘That’s good’, so I didn’t have another drink.”

At the time, Liberal Finance Minister Katy Gallagher called the incident “sad.”

“These things do nothing for the profession of politicians… it reaffirms, in people’s minds and the public’s minds, a negative association with politics, and I think that’s a real shame,” she told ABC Radio.

‘But personally I hope he gets the help he needs because it’s a very unusual position for someone that age.’

Mr Joyce insisted he was not an alcoholic and said he had drunk alcohol and taken medication unwisely that evening.

‘If I were [an alcoholic]it would have been impossible [to quit]I would have looked around desperately [for a drink]I literally woke up one morning and thought, ‘This is it,'” Joyce said.

He said he didn’t really miss drinking, but that he might want to have a beer again “someday.”

Mr Joyce also claimed he was not using his newfound focus to try to take leadership of the Nationals again.

Earlier this month, speculation emerged of an internal coup against current leader David Littleproud after he failed to secure a commitment from Liberal leader Peter Dutton to fund $30 billion in projects the Nationals consider a priority.

But Nationals MP Anne Webster in Victoria disagreed. She said: ‘This is the most stable period in the Nationals party since I was elected four years ago.’

Mrs Campion told of the now infamous night she was ‘half asleep’ when her husband called her and criticized the person who filmed him for forgetting to ask 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 at the time.

“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, continued talking on the phone and very animatedly referred to myself for having fallen.

‘I got up and walked home.’

The couple also sold their Braddon apartment which belonged to Mrs Campion this year and Mr Joyce sold his family home in Tamworth for $1.1 million.

The couple married in November 2023 in a bush bash-style wedding at his estate in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands.