Barnaby Joyce denies swearing at grieving mum Lucy Haslam

He was at the event at her personal invitation and despite arriving late, Lucy Haslam was still happy to see Barnaby Joyce. Problem was, she claims, is he would have preferred to be somewhere else — and made those feelings well known. WATCH THE VIDEO

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A grieving mother who helped campaign for the use of medicinal cannabis claims she was sworn at and verbally abused by Barnaby Joyce at an event she had invited him to.

Mr Joyce denied swearing at Lucy Haslam but told The Sunday Telegraph he did tell her she did “not have a mortgage of grief”.

Ms Haslam, whose son Dan died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 25, invited the former deputy Prime Minister to a screening of the medical cannabis movie High as Mike in Tamworth last Thursday evening, but when he arrived late, Ms Haslam approached him and thanked him for coming.

Lucy Haslam campaigned to legalise medical cannabis after her son Dan died of bowel cancer. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“I went up to him and crouched down and said thanks for coming and he looked at me and let fly,” Ms Haslam told The Sunday Telegraph.

“He said ‘I don’t have time to be at your f**king film Lucy’, I went ‘Wow, Barnaby you don’t have to be here, just go’ and he said ‘you think you’ve got a monopoly on grief, well you don’t’,” she said.

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“I told him to f**k off, when he said f**k to me, I just said f**k off out of here, I don’t want you here if that is your attitude.

“I was in complete shock and told my husband what Barnaby has said to me and he approached him and he reiterated what he said to me and my husband Lou said just go then, but he refused to go.

“At the end of the film I told him it was time to go and he said ‘no, I want to hear what you have to say Lucy’ and I said ‘please leave’.

“So I said ‘well, I will tell them what you just said to me’ and he said ‘go ahead and I’ll rebut it’, she said.

Dan Haslam died of cancer aged 24. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

Barnaby Joyce.

Mr Joyce told attendees — which included many terminally ill people — he “gets furious” at suggestions marijuana offers cancer suffers some “miracle elixir”.

He was also filmed saying he watched his brother die of bowel cancer.

“If you want to pull a few cones knock yourself out, God knows I did when I was at uni,” Mr Joyce said.

“But that does not mean for one second that there is some grand elixir or … that there is some hope that somehow my brother Timothy would be alive if this happened.”

Mr Joyce in a heated exchange with audience members at the screening of High As Mike. Picture: Supplied

“It turned into a ruckus and Barnaby is denying he swore at me, but it was just a circus,” she said.

A witness to the attack on Ms Haslam, who does not wish to be named at this point, said he could corroborate Ms Haslam’s version of events.

Ms Haslam however, said the worst bit was throwing a mother’s grief in her face.

“It was the attack on my grief, that was probably the most hurtful thing anyone has ever said to me, I was completely shocked,” Ms Haslam said, holding back tears.

Then deputy NSW Premier Troy Grant, acting PM Barnaby Joyce and Lucy Haslam. Picture: Facebook

Mr Joyce was specifically invited by Ms Haslam, who is the Director of United in Compassion, because he is the local member and he has previously congratulated her on her campaign for medical cannabis.

On Saturday, Mr Joyce denied swearing at Ms Haslam or claiming she had a “monopoly on grief”.

“Actually, correction. I said she did not have a mortgage on grief and I am not going through a calibration,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.

“I have the deepest sympathy for Lucy as I do for any person who has lost a sibling or a child, but I don’t think it makes you any more knowledgeable about medical issues than anybody else.

“If there is hurt there, I apologise to her, but it does not mean I agree with the tenant of the film, I have a cynicism about snake oil because the efficacy is highly dubious.”