Barnaby Joyce has conceded he had “one bottle too many” as he revisited the late-night Canberra incident that saw him filmed lying on a footpath — a moment he initially attributed to alcohol interacting with prescription medication.
The episode came to public attention in February 2024, when video first published by Our News Outlet showed the former deputy prime minister on his back near Lonsdale Street in Braddon shortly before midnight, after he had fallen from a planter box.
In the footage, Joyce could be heard speaking indistinctly on the phone while lying on the ground, at one point using the phrase “dead f***ing c***” — words he later said were aimed at himself during a call with his wife, Vikki Campion.
After the video surfaced, Joyce repeatedly said the fall had been caused by the combined effects of drinking and prescribed medication.
Pressed by Sky News host Andrew Bolt on whether alcohol was an ongoing issue for him, Joyce rejected the suggestion, saying: “I don’t. I can affirm that. I have a problem if you mix alcohol with medication and that was shown in brilliant form.”
But more than two years on, Joyce offered a more blunt assessment during Monday night’s episode of ABC’s Australian Story, acknowledging he had pushed things “too far”.
“I just obviously went too far in one night, didn’t I?” the now-One Nation MP said as he reflected on the widely discussed Canberra footpath video.
Asked whether it had simply been a case of having one drink too many, Joyce replied: “Oh yeah, not one, maybe one bottle too many.”
Barnaby Joyce (pictured) said that he had drunk ‘one bottle too many’ before falling from a planter onto a Canberra footpath in February 2024
Joyce (pictured) was spotted lying on the footpath on the phone to his wife Vikki Campion
Joyce added that he mainly drinks alcohol in social situations.
‘I know my faults, right? There are times where I don’t drink at all, you know, for long periods of time,’ he said.
‘Most of the time, if I drink, I drink socially. What does that mean? You know, don’t get drunk.’
During the episode, former chief of staff Jake Smith said he was blindsided when a journalist rang him about the footage.
‘In my mind, I’m going through, “Well, it can’t possibly be him”,’ he said, adding that he then spoke to Joyce about the claims.
‘There’s this long pause and he just goes, “Well, well, well, well, well, well, I think that might have been me”.’
Smith also pushed back on suggestions that Joyce was a habitual heavy drinker.
‘He’s actually not a heavy drinker in a consistent way. When he does decide to have a drink, he can do it pretty hard,’ he said.
Joyce (right) said the fallout from the incident led him to meet with Pauline Hanson (left)
Campion, who also appeared in the Australian Story episode, said the incident prompted Joyce to stop drinking for a year, adding that he should take better care of his health.
‘Should he slow down? Yeah,’ she said.
‘You know, sometimes it’s frustrating because you want those best health outcomes for him.’
In the week after the footage emerged, Joyce took sole responsibility for the incident.
‘Look, I did the wrong thing and it rests on my head and that’s it. That’s all you need to say,’ he said at the time.
‘I was the one who fell off the planter box. I was the one who was videoed in the street. It’s my fault. I did the wrong thing. That’s it. The end.’
The ABC episode also examined the political fallout from footage of Joyce lying on the pavement.
Former Nationals leader David Littleproud said the incident extinguished any support for a Joyce leadership comeback within the party.
‘After Barnaby was found on the pavement, what little support he did have for ever wanting to return to the leadership was evaporated,’ he said.
Littleproud said he had sought to drive ‘generational change’ in the Nationals after the Coalition’s 2022 election defeat and revealed he would be unlikely to allow Joyce to return to the front bench.
Joyce, who joined One Nation after his relationship with the Nationals soured, said those calls for renewal helped push him in a different direction.
‘I thought… generational change is an invite to dinner with Pauline Hanson,’ he said.
