‘Sit down!’: Joyce yells at dog during tense TV interview
Source: ABC TV
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has defended Barnaby Joyce after he interrupted a tense ABC TV interview to shout at his dog, then threatened it would come to a “grinding halt” after being pressed to ignore the animal and focus on a question.
Joyce was being grilled by 7.30 journalist Sarah Ferguson about Hanson’s meeting in the UK with far-right extremist and convicted criminal Tommy Robinson, and her comments about Australian Muslims.
Ferguson had just asked if he was “comfortable with where she is taking you” when the One Nation deputy leader lost his temper with the dog, who could not be seen on camera.
Turning to the side, he yelled: “Sit down!”
“Sorry, it’s the dog,” he said, looking back to face Ferguson.
Joyce then argued that recent polls had shown Australians wanted a change in direction for the country, but stopped again later when pressed on whether One Nation would require doctors to report people overstaying their visas to the authorities.
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“I have to apologise for this dog, which has decided to bail up….” he began, before Ferguson sternly told him not to worry about the pet and “just answer the question”.
“Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude. Otherwise this interview will come to a grinding halt, Sarah,” Joyce snapped back, before stumbling and asking her to repeat the question.
Hanson later posted her own take on the 7.30 interview on Facebook, describing it as “hostile”.
“You have to love live tv from home,” the post said.
“Poor Barnaby had to put up with his dog distracting him during an already hostile ABC interview.”
During his appearance on the program, Joyce claimed Hanson’s meeting with Robinson wasn’t initiated by One Nation but was suggested by Channel Seven’s Spotlight program – which the network has denied.
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Joyce – who has previously denied his party wants a return to the White Australia immigration policy, despite his leader referencing it during her talk with Robinson – was also asked by Ferguson if he agreed with Hanson’s characterisation of Australian Muslims.
Despite saying not every person of the Islamic faith could be characterised in the same way, he claimed that a form of “balkanisation” in Australia had led to an alternate culture at odds with the country’s “egalitarian ethos”.
“Then that creates massive problems and we saw that at Bondi.”
Pauline Hanson and Gina Rinehart at the Grand Hotel San Pietro. Photos: Instagram
Hanson’s visit to a luxury Italian hotel last week with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart, and her later attendance at a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Sicily, was also raised during the interview.
Ferguson mentioned Joyce having himself returned a cheque for $45,000 given to him by Rinehart in the past, asking why it was “okay for Pauline Hanson to take planes and lavish five-star travel from the same person”.
“First of all I don’t know whether that’s the case – I suggest that it probably is, but I don’t know…,” he replied. “If she hasn’t paid for it… it will be on the declaration of interest like everything else is.”
He went on to insist Rinehart didn’t get anything out of her donations to One Nation, pondering why any individual or organisation donated to a political party of any persuasion.
“I don’t know why they do it all. Sometimes I can’t work out why they have that sort of loyalty. It just absolutely bemuddles me.”
Ferguson ended the interview by thanking Joyce for joining the program and commenting that “the dog was no problem”.
“It was to me,” he replied.
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