Thread by @batshit_auspol

For international followers wanting to know who this Barnaby Joyce fellow is that everyone has been clowning on in the last few days: a thread 🧵

Barnaby Joyce is Australia's two time Deputy Prime Minister, who cosplays as a down-to-earth farmer despite:
- being a banker & accountant before politics
- being best mates with a mining billionaire &
- having attended Sydney's most prestigious & expensive private school

Barnaby is probably best known for being the reason a "bonk ban" was introduced to Australia's Parliament house, making it illegal for politicians to have sex in the Capital, after it was revealed he had gotten his Parliamentary PA pregnant while on the job.

This was problematic on two fronts given:
a) He was already very married at that time and
b) He had campaigned against gay-marriage on the grounds of "protecting the institution of marriage" while cheating on his wife

Needless to say, he was clowned out of office for this (and also clowned some more when he went on TV with his mistress and tried to claim it could be anyone's baby - despite knowing it was his kid)

Barnaby proceeded to dump his wife & move in with his PA Vikki, only to walk into another PR disaster when it was revealed his new digs were being provided rent-free in what most would consider to be "a giant fucking bribe".

(Sidenote: his former wife responded to all this by becoming a professional bodybuilder.)

This was only months after Barnaby had already been kicked out of Parliament for having accidentally been a New Zealand citizen. New Zealand nominated him for New Zealander of the Year just to take the piss out of him during this incident:

Despite having losing his job as Deputy Prime Minister over the "sleeping with staff" thing - Barnaby regained the role a few years later - by turning his life around and being an upstanding citizen and member of parliament, you ask?

Nup, by rolling the acting Prime Minister in the middle of a Covid outbreak crisis, while the actual PM was out of the country & powerless to stop his dumbass colleagues from putting Barnaby back in the job. Here's a pic of Barnaby pushing over a small child at his swearing-in:

To give an idea of how much the public still hadn't forgiven him at this point, shortly after Barnaby was fined by police after a member of the public dobbed him in for going into a petrol station without wearing a facemask, as was required at the time.

You might also know Barnaby from the time he tried to murder Johnny Depp's dogs, after he said Depp would only be allowed to leave the country with his pups intact if the actor uploaded this bizzare hostage video about Australia's quarantine rules:

Anyway we'll leave you with this last pic, reminding you that this man has on many occasions been the acting Prime Minister, in charge of an entire continent:

If you enjoyed this thread chuck us a follow for more Batshit Moments in Australian Politics, or tag a mate who might enjoy and/or have their brain melted by this

Oh, and if you haven't seen it - his latest venture is as a Canberra pavement inspector