Barnaby Joyce video: Anthony Albanese breaks his silence after former deputy PM was seen sprawled next to a road late at night

EXCLUSIVE

PM Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in ‘clearly difficult circumstances’ after  Daily Mail Australia revealed video of the MP sprawled by the roadside mumbling incoherent profanities. 

On Friday, Daily Mail Australia published exclusive video of the New England MP lying on the footpath at Lonsdale Street, in Canberra’s Braddon suburb on Wednesday at 11.26pm.

The former deputy prime minister could be heard muttering on the phone while flat on his back on the ground, including one outburst where he said, ‘Dead f***ing c***’.

Sources told Daily Mail Australia the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on the large pot plant having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, ‘rolled around’ on the ground and continued with the phone conversation.

PM Anthony Albanese says Barnaby Joyce is in ‘clearly difficult circumstances’ 

The footage has sparked calls for the former deputy prime minister to be removed from the Nationals frontbench, and the PM said Mr Joyce needed to explain himself.

The PM stressed he had never been in similar predicament himself and told Perth 6PR radio: ‘Not in that position.’

He added: ‘That’s a matter for for Barnaby Joyce to explain. I think that’s a matter for him.

‘I don’t intend to comment on what is clearly difficult circumstances for Barnaby Joyce.’

Mr Joyce has tried to laugh off the shocking video footage and quipped on Friday: ‘If I had known someone was there with a camera, I would have got up quicker.’ 

But other critics have now called for the Canberra veteran to quit politics in the wake of the incident.

Academic and political author Jenny Hocking lashed the Nationals MP on social media, and added: ‘Is this the standard Dutton accepts in his front bench?

‘Barnaby Joyce needs help and needs to show leadership and dismiss him as Shadow Minister for Veterans’ Affairs.’

Barnaby Joyce could be seen on the pavement while talking on the phone (pictured)

He could be heard saying ‘dead f***ing c**t’ into the phone on Wednesday night (pictured)

Her comments come after the witness who filmed him hit out at the politician’s wife after she accused them of not caring.

Ms Campion told media she was ‘half asleep’ when her husband phoned her and slammed the witness for failing to ask if he needed help.

‘It’s disgusting that when he was in need they could not even check he was OK,’ she said. 

But the witness hit back and said there was no evidence that Joyce required help.

‘Joyce seemed relaxed and happy lying on the side of the road and didn’t appear to require any assistance,’ the source said.

In the video, Joyce could be seen lying on the pavement with his legs up and his jacket splayed.

He was sporting the same blue and white tie worn during Question Time in Parliament House earlier that day.

Ms Campion said her husband was not referring to her when he called someone a ‘dead f***ing c**t’ during the phone call. 

‘I think he was calling himself one, he likes to self flagellate,’ 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 after Parliament rose at 10pm,’ he said.

‘While on the phone I sat on the edge of a plant box, fell over, kept talking on the phone, and very animatedly was referring to myself for having fallen over.

‘I got up and walked home.’

The pair got married in a bush bash-style wedding at his family’s property in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, in November.

Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his wife Vikki Campion on Tuesday – the day before the scene on Lonsdale Street

Barnaby and Vikki at their ‘bush-bash’ wedding 

Joyce didn’t ask any questions in Parliament on Wednesday.

On Thursday, he spoke to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt about how he believes the Australian Defence Force should acquire more drones. 

Earlier in the 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 li-like, I like going to the movies and I can’t, can’t but re-, I can’t but always remember Howard Hughes, Howard Hughes the aviator,’ he said.

Barnaby Joyce can be seen in Parliament House on Wednesday in the same blue and white tie

Barnaby Joyce is pictured on the Bolt report on Thursday, the day after his ’embarrassing’ phone call on the footpath

‘But Howard Hughes the aviator but Labor party got Albo the advocator, the great, the great advocator, the great ideas man, the great ideas man straight from the pool room.’

Albanese said Joyce’s comments had ‘nothing to do with the question’. 

Later that year, he appeared to use a word that didn’t exist.

Joyce was trying to discipline Labor members for casting ‘denearing’ sneers towards some of his MPs.

‘I might bring some attention to some of the denearing sneers that have happened across the chamber at a person who has been a very accomplished businessman, who has stood behind the great city of Gladstone,’ he said.

‘There’s a denearing sneer towards the member of Flynn.

‘There is a denearing sneer towards the people of the great city of Gladstone and the people of Central Queensland.

Viewers took to social media asking why he was using a made-up word.

Hansard, the written record of the proceedings and debates in Parliament, released a transcript of his speech that claimed Joyce was saying ‘derisive’ rather than ‘denearing’.

The video of Mr Joyce comes after increased scrutiny on parliamentary standards 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 that Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces meet the highest standards of integrity, dignity, safety and mutual respect’.

The code and standards apply to all duties undertaken during members’ employment, including at social events, while travelling for work, and outside normal business hours.

‘Alcohol is no excuse for breach of this code or the standards,’ the code says.

Nationals leader David Littleproud has been approached for comment. 

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