Sunrise host Natalie Barr has confronted Barnaby Joyce over quitting alcohol after footage of him lying on a footpath following too many drinks went viral.
It comes after Daily Mail Australia revealed video of Mr Joyce, 57, sprawled on the footpath at Lonsdale Street, in the Canberra suburb of Braddon, on a Wednesday night in February at 11.26pm.
On Monday, Barr asked Joyce about his no-alcohol resolution since that infamous night.
‘I literally woke up the next morning and said, that’ll do. I’ve given up the smokes, and I’ve given up alcohol,’ Joyce said.
‘It was my choice, nobody elses. I thought that it was a disgrace, and I can’t do that again.’
Joyce said he had lost 15kg and felt mentally ‘sharper’ than ever since giving up alcohol but admitted life was ‘boring’ since he stopped drinking.
‘Life is boring, having to talk to people at functions. Do you know the rubbish they prattle on about? It’s incredible,’ Joyce said.
‘If you want to have a drink, that is absolutely and utterly your choice.
‘I’ve made a choice. Whether it’s for life or for as long as it goes, I don’t know. It didn’t worry me, I just woke up and stopped.’
Mr Joyce said last 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 infamous night.
‘I disgraced myself and I just woke up the next morning and said ‘that’ll do’, so I didn’t have another drink.’
His 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 claimed during his time off he ‘went fencing’, did manual farm work, lost 15kg and was ‘sharper’ than ever.
Mr Joyce also revealed he was 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.
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.
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