.png)
7 hours ago
6
The Australian politician Pauline Hanson – a populist, hard-right figure in the Nigel Farage mould – probably expected her European tour to generate headlines.
But the One Nation party leader, who is riding high in the polls, could not have anticipated that coverage would become dominated by one of her MPs yelling at his dog on national television.
Hanson’s itinerary in Europe had included holidaying in Italy with the mining billionaire Gina Rinehart, speaking at a conservative conference in London and joining the far-right agitator and convicted criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, for a cosy chat on his podcast.
On Monday night, One Nation’s Barnaby Joyce beamed into the ABC’s 7.30 programme from his home in New South Wales to defend Hanson’s European gaffe-filled “working holiday” and her vitriolic comments.
However, the MP’s attempt to mop up some of the mess ended up being overshadowed by an aggressive confrontation with his dog, Stella.
Joyce, a former deputy prime minister and turncoat MP who left the mainstream conservative National party for the more rightwing One Nation in December last year, is no stranger to the limelight. Nor was Monday’s outburst the first time the politician has made the news overseas for a dog-related story, after his run-in with Johnny Depp’s pets in 2015.
About halfway through the tense interview on Monday, the 7.30 host, Sarah Ferguson, put to Joyce that his defection to One Nation was “dragging” him “further into a place of intolerance and racial discrimination”. Ferguson continued: “You’re defending your leader, but are you really comfortable with where she is taking you?”
Joyce’s eyes could be seen darting off-screen during the question. He began answering before suddenly yelling: “Sit down!”
“Sorry. It’s the dog,” he said, before continuing his answer without addressing the substance of Ferguson’s question, instead noting One Nation’s growing polling support.
Joyce later apologised for the dog, which he said was interrupting him. Ferguson said: “Don’t worry about the dog. Just answer the question.” The MP responded: “Don’t be rude. Otherwise, this interview will come to a grinding halt.”
Joyce later told the Guardian that Stella, a “staffy-border collie” cross, had been “barking incessantly” under the deck where he was standing for the interview.
With about 30% of the primary vote according to the latest Newspoll, One Nation is on roughly equal footing with Labor, the centre-left party that holds a majority government in Australia.
Joyce, who has represented the regional NSW electorate of New England as an MP since 2013 and spent nearly a decade as a senator for Queensland before that, is a veteran of both parliament and going viral.
In 2024, while he was still a National party MP, Daily Mail Australia published night-time footage of Joyce in Canberra lying face-up on the pavement with his feet on a planter box, having a phone conversation and uttering profanities.
Joyce also caused a stir in 2019 with a video he posted on X, then Twitter, captioned “Merry Christmas”. Filmed in selfie-mode in a paddock, it involved him declaring he was “sick of the government being in my life” while musing on climate change.
In previous dog-related drama, when Joyce was agriculture minister in 2015, he made the Hollywood actors Depp and Amber Heard film themselves apologising for trying to bring their dogs – Pistol and Boo – into the country against Australia’s strict biosecurity laws.
