One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has apologised to the journalist Pauline Hanson’s media adviser told to “shut up” at a press conference, but stopped short of calling out Hanson for labelling the same reporter a “nasty bitch”.
Hanson’s media adviser, Richard Henderson, told The Guardian’s Sarah Martin to “shut up” at the end of a press conference in Adelaide yesterday, before Hanson was caught on camera telling a group of her staff and MPs: “Should’ve said, you’re the nasty bitch.”
“I did ring Sarah after that and apologised for the shut-up comment,” Joyce told Sky News. “Obviously didn’t come from me – and the rest, I just don’t know the backstory on it. I’m not really interested in it to be quite frank.
“Press conferences [are] on the balls of your toes, and it goes back and forth in, at times, a willing way, and maybe that’s part of the colour. One thing you can say about One Nation, they’re never boring.”
Martin has reported extensively on Hanson’s use of taxpayer funds and the donations and gifts she has received from mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.
Martin reported last week that Hanson had billed taxpayers almost $16,000 for flights on Rinehart’s private plane to flood-affected Queensland earlier this year, despite claiming the trips were made at no cost to the taxpayer.
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