Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has ramped up his calls for more stringent privacy laws after he was accused of threatening to punch a photographer.
The backbencher said on Monday he and partner Vikki Campion did the $150,000 tell-all interview with Channel Seven to end the intense scrutiny of their private lives.
"We certainly wouldn't have done the interview if we thought it was just going to continue on, obviously it is," Mr Joyce told the Seven Network on Monday.
The former Nationals leader said he accepted public figures would get media attention, but laws needed to be changed to protect people like his partner and the couple's baby son Sebastian from paparazzi.
"These people have the capacity to destroy someone's life," Mr Joyce said.
He said Ms Campion, his former media adviser, had been harassed for months.
It was revealed in February that Mr Joyce was having an affair with Ms Campion, who was pregnant with their child.
"Private individuals, kids especially, should have greater protections than what they've got. They haven't got any," Mr Joyce said.
Joyce in paparazzo stoush
Mr Joyce's privacy calls come after he strongly rejected a claim he considered punching a photographer who took pictures of him outside a church in Armidale, NSW.
The photographer, Guy Finlay, previously sprayed the actor Heath Ledger with water at a red carpet event in 2006.
Mr Joyce, who is currently on leave from parliament until the end of the month, posted the video of his interaction with Mr Finlay on Twitter, following it up with a tweet accusing him of ambushing.
"Coming out of church, guess who is hiding in the bushes taking photos, yet won't give his name or who he works for," Mr Joyce said in the tweet.
The photographer claimed Mr Joyce came out of the church and pulled his hand back, as if ready to punch him. The Australian reports Mr Finlay's employer, Matrix Picture Agency, are considering legal action.
But Mr Joyce denied the claim and repeated the denial on breakfast television on Monday.
"I didn't, and he knows that, and so does everybody else who was standing around watching," the former Nationals leader told Seven's Sunrise.
The Nationals MP has complained about the behaviour of media, accusing photographers and journalists of harassing him over his relationship with Ms Campion.
The church incident
The exchange was filmed as the former Nationals leader was leaving the Armidale church.
In the filmed exchange, Mr Joyce repeatedly asks Mr Finlay to identify himself.
“Why do you keep following me around?” Mr Joyce asks in the video.
“Well it’s our job,” Mr Finlay replied.
“Who do you work for?” Mr Joyce asked.
“How can you seriously come out of church and size someone up to punch them,” Mr Finlay responds.
“I didn’t size you up to punch you,” Mr Joyce said.
“Yes you did. You pulled your right hand back and if I hadn’t actually walked away you would have clubbed me. Go back to your regular job as a bouncer. Seriously.”
During his time at university, Mr Joyce worked as a bouncer at the Wicklow Hotel in Armidale.
In a subsequent tweet, Mr Joyce said the altercation shows “why we need the tort of privacy”.
No police report
Mr Finlay’s employer, Matrix Pictures, said it has ruled out filing a police report over the incident.
“There is no need to file a report,” Matrix Pictures CEO, Ben McDonald told SBS News.
“It was a melee. No-one was hurt, it’s not a matter for police. It would be a waste of their resources.”
Mr McDonald defended the actions of his employee and said Mr Joyce’s response to “intimidate” was unwarranted.
“We are well within our rights to take photos of a public figure in a public place.”
Earlier this month, Mr Joyce and Vikki Campion agreed to a $150,000 interview with commercial media, with Mr Joyce later saying he had hoped the interview would stop the media hounding him.
The couple said the money is going into a trust fund for their baby, Sebastian.
- with AAP
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