Greens candidate shares staggering ‘sex’ reason for why she went into politics

EXCLUSIVE 

Bizarre footage has emerged showing a Greens candidate telling audience members at a comedy gig that she was ‘stupid’ enough to enter politics because she wanted to ‘f*** Barnaby Joyce’.

Mandy Nolan, who is a candidate for the seat of Richmond in the Byron Bay region, was the MC at a cabaret show called The Met Gala in Lismore, northern NSW, on July 27 when she made the shocking comment.

In front of locals who coughed up $140 each for tickets, Ms Nolan said: ‘I was asked why I would do something as stupid as get into politics.

‘And I said, “I’m just doing it so I can f*** Barnaby Joyce”.’

Mr Joyce was the leader of the Nationals in 2017 when he announced that he had left his wife of 24 years for his much younger staffer, Vikki Campion.

At the time, Ms Campion was two months away from giving birth to their eldest son, Sebastian.  

He resigned as leader of the party but remains on the frontbench.

When approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia, Ms Nolan said: ‘It’s a joke, Joyce’ – a dated catchphrase from a 60s Australian sitcom. 

According to the event page, Ms Nolan promised to be ‘the hostess with the mostess with her hilarious wit and charm for all to experience’.

While she has not yet made it to the Senate, she will run in the next election – promising her future constituents to ‘take that megaphone to Canberra’. 

‘With a close election, I could hold the balance of power and be one of the most powerful voices in Canberra,’ her campaign site says.

‘Either way, I’ll be the loudest.’

Ms Nolan came under fire in 2022 when a video surfaced of her reading an opinion piece that was originally published in the Byron Shire Echo in 2011.

She had been discussing the frustrations of explaining the need to balance fun and responsibility to her teenage daughter, when she said Adolf Hitler ‘had fun’.

‘Just look at Hitler. He had fun. He did whatever he wanted to do,’ she said in the video.

Many Nolan is a Greens candidate who made a ‘joke’ about Barnaby Joyce

‘Just ask six million Jews how they feel about that now and he still didn’t get his sociopathic fill – you just can’t do it, it’s ­unethical.’ 

Despite calls for her to be disendorsed, Greens leader Adam Bandt said at the time that she would make a great member for Richmond and pointed out that she apologised.

‘Mandy has a strong history of fighting anti-Semitism and fascism, and has apologised for any distress caused by her comments,’ he said, in 2022.

In a podcast with comedian Wil Anderson in 2023, she jokingly thanked legendary Australian cricketer Shane Warne for having a fatal heart attack in Thailand – which took the heat off her Hitler comments.

Labor won the Richmond seat at the last election 58.2 per cent to the Nationals’ 41.8 per cent, on a two party preferred basis. 

But Ms Nolan polled strongly on first preferences, with 25.3 per cent of the vote compared with Labor’s Justine Elliott’s 28.8 per cent – meaning she could be real threat in the seat.