Barnaby Joyce ‘not looking for sympathy’ after video of footpath incident

Barnaby Joyce says he is “not looking for sympathy” after explaining that footage of him lying on a Canberra footpath and swearing into his phone was the result of combining alcohol and prescription drugs.

Pressure is mounting on the Nationals leadership to drop Joyce, a former deputy prime minister, from the frontbench amid claims the response has revealed a double standard.

Guardian Australia understands Joyce won’t attend the Nationals party room meeting he was expected to attend on Monday morning, where the episode will be discussed.

On Friday Daily Mail Australia published night-time footage of Joyce in Canberra lying face up on the pavement with his feet on a planter box, having a phone conversation and uttering profanities.

Joyce told the Seven network on Monday he had “made a big mistake” by mixing alcohol with a prescription medicine he was taking, but he wouldn’t be drawn on whether he should face reprimands for his behaviour.

“I’m on a prescription drug, and they say certain things may happen to you if you drink, and they were absolutely 100% right,” he said. “They did.”

“I’m not looking for sympathy and I’m not looking for an excuse. I’ll just stand by that. What I said is what I said. I came back, I sat on a planter box, I fell off, and I was videotaped. There you go. What else can you say?”

At the weekend the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, both said they would speak to Joyce this week.

Littleproud has said Joyce will not be demoted, instead offering support. He told Sky News Joyce had given him explanations, some of which Joyce had made public and others he had not.

While other politicians from across the political spectrum have expressed their concern for the Nationals frontbencher, others have questioned whether the response would be different if a female politician were in his place.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, said while Joyce had offered an explanation it would be up to others whether they accepted it or not.

“I think if a woman politician had found themselves in a similar situation, I feel like there would be widespread condemnation,” he said. “Indeed, we have seen that previously.

“And I think the fact that a lot of people are just going to shrug this off is a bit of a wake-up call as to whether or not we’re applying the same standards right across the parliament here.

“So I’m [asking] for an equal standard to be applied across everyone – the whole parliament and the whole society.”

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In 2023 the independent senator Lidia Thorpe was involved in an early-morning altercation outside a Melbourne strip club. Footage showed her involved in an expletive-laden argument with several men.

When asked about the episode, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said at the time the “level of behaviour is quite clearly unacceptable” and he hoped Thorpe “gets some support”.

“These are not the actions of anyone who should be participating in society in a normal way, let alone a senator,” Albanese said. “Lidia needs to be very conscious of the way in which this behaviour has been seen.”

Albanese did not comment on the Joyce footage on Friday, saying the MP was experiencing “clearly difficult circumstances”.

But on Sunday the prime minister called for an explanation.

“I think people will also think to themselves, what would the response be if that was a minister in my government being seen to be behaving in that way?” Albanese said. “I think that there just needs to be an explanation of what occurred.”

Thorpe criticised Albanese’s initial reaction, saying he had made “condescending, inaccurate comments” toward herself and female colleagues in the past in comments to news.com.au.

“Parliament is still a private school boys club, and this is the latest example of the double standards we see from men in power,” she said. “Sexism, misogyny and racism still plague our politics, and it’s clear the prime minister plays a role in that.”