David Littleproud told the ABC he and Mr Joyce had a conversation about the “circumstances” that led to him lying down in the street.
The Nationals MP said Mr Joyce’s behaviour wasn’t “normal” and that he had embarrassed himself and his family.
Mr Littleproud said there were “greater circumstances” to the incident than the public was aware of, beyond the “mixture of medication and alcohol”.
“There’s some family circumstances that his family need to deal with, and I encouraged him to take some time to deal with that emotionally,” Mr Littleproud said.
"To make sure that his family understood that he was there for them but that we were there for Barnaby. That we were going to create an environment for him to be able to address those issues.
You know, there were a number of snarky comments that came to mind. But in all seriousness, if I have ‘family circumstances that my family need to deal with’, you’ll find me in a number of places, but certainly not zoned out from mixing alcohol and prescription meds, lying in the streets of Canberra swearing into my phone. My family wouldn’t stand for it, and my employer wouldn’t stand for it, if I somehow dragged them into the mix. They wouldn’t merely ask me to ‘consider taking personal leave’.
why does your employer have any say over your private life? idk your situation but that seems weird…