Pauline Hanson has revealed she invited former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce to join One Nation after he was filmed rolling around on the pavement in a ‘highly embarrassing’ late-night incident.
Last February, Daily Mail Australia revealed shocking footage of Mr Joyce sprawled on a Canberra footpath, mumbling obscenities into his phone after attending parliament functions earlier in the day.
Sources told this publication that the Nationals frontbencher was sitting on a large pot plant while having an animated phone conversation with his wife, Vikki Campion, when he fell off, ‘rolled around’ on the ground and continued with his call.
The footage caused a political firestorm, with many of Mr Joyce’s colleagues privately urging for him to step down or retire.
But Senator Hanson has now revealed that she offered the former deputy prime minister a lifeline in the form of an invitation to join her party, One Nation.
‘Some of his colleagues wanted him gone out of parliament,’ Senator Hanson said in a video posted to her Facebook page on Monday.
‘I thought: No. I like Barnaby. I like what he stands for. We’re on the same page. We think alike, and we’re out there and we say it the way we see it. So I asked Barnaby.
‘Guess what? He comes back and said, thanks, Pauline, but no thank you. So he’s remained loyal to the Nationals.’
Pauline Hanson has revealed she invited former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce to join One Nation after he was filmed rolling around on the pavement
At first, Senator Hanson mistakenly said ‘loyal to One Nation’ before she corrected herself, adding: ‘I would like him to cross to One Nation but he said no’.
Senator Hanson recorded the video in response to a Sydney Morning Herald story published earlier on Monday revealing that she had wanted Mr Joyce to defect.
The paper cited sources who alleged that the Nationals Party leader, David Littleproud, plans to deny Mr Joyce a ministry if the Coalition wins power.
After Daily Mail Australia revealed the embarrassing episode last February, Mr Joyce attempted to laugh off the episode.
‘If I had known someone was there with a camera, I would have got up quicker,’ he said.
However, as concern and outrage mounted, Mr Joyce sought to explain himself and admitted the fallout was ‘very embarrassing’.
‘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.
After Daily Mail Australia revealed the embarrassing episode, Mr Joyce (pictured with his wife Vikki Campion at their wedding in November 2023) attempted to laugh the incident off
‘I got up and walked home.’
He later gave up booze and lost 15 kilograms.
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***’.
But his wife, former advisor Vikki Campion, who was on the other end of the line said she was not referring to her.
‘I think he was calling himself one, he likes to self flagellate,’ she said.
The pair got married in a bush bash-style wedding at his family’s property in Woolbrook, in the NSW Northern Tablelands, in November 2023.