Barnaby Joyce has blamed mixing prescription drugs with alcohol after an embarrassing video showed him lying on his back near a gutter and mumbling profanities into his phone.
Daily Mail Australia revealed an exclusive video last Wednesday of the former deputy prime minister, 56, sprawled on the footpath on Lonsdale Street, in the Canberra suburb of Braddon.
Sources said the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on a large potted plant while having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, ‘rolled on the floor’ and continued with his phone call.
Mr Joyce was forced to address the night out during an appearance at Sunrise with Natalie Barr.
“How are you,” Barr asked awkwardly.
Mr Joyce replied: “Look, I clearly made a big mistake. There’s no excuse for it.
‘There’s a reason. And it was a very eventful walk home, wasn’t it? I’m taking a prescription drug and they say certain things can happen to you if you drink it, and they were absolutely 100% right. They did that.’
Sunrise presenter Natalie Barr has confronted Barnaby Joyce after embarrassing video footage emerged
Barr continued to ask Mr. Joyce, “So you mixed alcohol with prescription drugs, and this is what happened?”
Joyce replied, “That’s exactly what I said, yes.”
Barr then asked, “Are you a little upset that you were 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 the… was the Indian taxi driver who stopped as I was walking home and said, ‘Do you need a lift, mate?’, which obviously I did.”
More to come.