Nationals leader David Littleproud ‘strongly encouraged’ Barnaby Joyce to take personal leave after footpath incident

David Littleproud confirms he and Peter Dutton have ‘strongly encouraged’ Barnaby Joyce to take personal leave after the federal MP was caught lying on a public footpath.

David Littleproud has confirmed he and Peter Dutton have “strongly encouraged” Barnaby Joyce to take personal leave after the federal MP was caught lying on a public footpath.

The Nationals MP was captured on a video lying on a street in the Canberra suburb of Braddon after a late night parliamentary sitting at about 11:30 pm February 7.

Speaking out on Wednesday, the Nationals leader said the incident was not a display of normal behaviour and said Mr Joyce was embarrassed for himself and his family.

“His behaviour was not acceptable but there were circumstances that drove that and that my job is to create the environment for him to be able to address that,” Mr Littleproud told Sunrise.

“I’ve strongly encouraged him to take that leave to be able to address it.”

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce claims he tripped over a planter box. Picture: Supplied.

On Monday, the former deputy prime minister explained he is on prescription medication and was told “certain things may happen” if he mixed alcohol with it.

He said had fallen off a planter box after walking home from a late night function while speaking on the phone with his wife Vikki Campion.

Flagging further conversations with the MP over the coming days, Mr Littleproud said Mr Joyce was also experiencing “distressing” issues in his personal life and said he would be welcomed back once he got his affairs in order.

He said Mr Joyce welcomed the leave offer and was considering it ahead of conversations with his family.

Mr Littleproud said putting Mr Joyce on leave was the ‘best course of action’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“There are some other personal circumstances around his family, and some unfortunate circumstances that have prevailed with other family members – that are distressing to Barnaby … and he needs to address those,” he said.

“I don’t intend to talk about those publicly.

“That is up to Barnaby. But he wants those things to be kept private. If he does, that is up to him, if he wants to express that it’s up to him. But I don’t intend to breach his confidence.”