Barnaby Joyce has sworn off alcohol for good, having been ashamed of the viral footage of him lying on a footpath after having some drinks.
Daily Mail Australia revealed exclusive video of the nation’s former deputy prime minister, 57, sprawled on the footpath at Lonsdale Street, in the Canberra suburb of Braddon, on a Wednesday night in February at 11.26pm.
Sources told this masthead the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on a large planter pot having an animated phone conversation with his new wife Vikki Campion when he fell off, ‘rolled around’ on the ground and continued with his profanity-laden call.
Mr Joyce said this week from his Parliament House office that he and Ms Campion no longer have any alcohol at home and he has not touched a drop since that night, calling it a low point in his life.
‘Big swathes of the night I don’t remember. And that’s never, ever happened to me before. And I never, ever want it to happen again,’ he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mr Joyce’s National Party MP colleagues said they have noticed a difference in his behaviour since he returned to Parliament after Coalition leaders David Littleproud and Peter Dutton ordered him to take a break.
He claims during his time off he ‘went fencing’, did manual farm work, has lost 15kg and is ‘sharper’ than ever.
Mr Joyce also revealed he’s been told by someone who closely inspected the footage that his phone was upside down and Ms Campion might have likely not heard what he was saying.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was filmed rolling around on the ground muttering profanities into his phone on a Wednesday night in February (pictured)
Earlier that day Mr Joyce appeared in Parliament in the same blue and white tie
Following the video, questions were raised about Mr Joyce’s suitability to represent his constituents or serve in parliament, but others thought it would in no way damage the brand of the man Tony Abbott once described as ‘Australia’s best retail politician’.
But Mr Joyce admitted this week: ‘I disgraced myself and I just woke up the next morning and said ‘that’ll do’, so I didn’t have another drink.’
Liberal Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said at the time the incident was ‘sad’.
‘These things do nothing for the profession of politicians … it confirms, in people’s minds, the public’s minds, 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 of that age to be in.’
Mr Joyce insisted he is and was not an alcoholic and said his inebriation that night was due to drinking while on medication.
‘If I was [an alcoholic], it would have been impossible [to quit], I would have been desperately looking around [for a drink]. I just literally woke up one morning and said ”that’s it”,’ Joyce said.
He has not sworn off alcohol for life, saying ‘at some stage’ he might ‘have a beer again’, though he says he has not missed it.
A slimmed-down Barnaby Joyce in Parliament this week. He claimed he has lost 15kg since giving up booze after his infamous night
Mr Joyce also claimed his renewed focus was not being used to attempt another run at leadership of the Nationals.
Earlier this month there was speculation of an internal coup against current leader David Littleproud after he failed to secure a pledge from Liberals leader Peter Dutton to fund $30billion worth of projects the Nationals deemed as priorities.
But Nationals Member for Mallee in Victoria, Anne Webster, refuted any talk of disharmony, saying: ‘This is the most stable period in the Nationals party room since I was elected four years ago.’
Ms Campion said of the now infamous video that she was ‘half asleep’ when her husband phoned her and she slammed the person who filmed him for not instead offering her husband 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.
Barnaby Joyce is pictured with his wife Vikki Campion the day before he was filmed sprawled on Lonsdale Street in Braddon, Canberra
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.
At the time Joyce described the scene as ‘very embarrassing’ in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.
‘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 couple has also this year sold their Braddon apartment that belonged to Ms Campion and Mr Joyce sold his family home in Tamworth for $1.1million.
The pair were married in a bush bash-style wedding at his property in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, in November 2023.
Barnaby Joyce and Vikki Campion at their ‘bush-bash’ wedding in November 2023
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