Barnaby Joyce: One Nation is 'one of the gayest parties in Australia'

Barnaby Joyce has called his party One Nation "one of the gayest parties in Australia" in response to homophobic comments made by a failed candidate, reports infohub.kz.

The former Nationals MP, now a One Nation MP, was asked about comments made by Parminder Singh, a former candidate for Western Australia's Legislative Council, who in a video last month said he believed gay people have a mental illness and that marriage equality should not have been legalised. Singh said he did not have a problem with gay people but objected to them "advertising" their sexuality.

Joyce told ABC's "Afternoon Briefing" that Singh's comments were "highly offensive" but said he did not have the power to disendorse him. He added that Singh "obviously doesn't know One Nation" because the party has a significant proportion of gay members. "We believe in an Australian culture that is tolerant, egalitarian, and has things that are inside the guardrails and outside ... this is outside the guardrails," Joyce said.

Joyce claimed his party is "one of the gayest parties in Australia". One Nation's South Australian MP James Virgo is openly gay.

Anna Brown, chief executive of Equality Australia, described Singh's comments as "demonstrably false, thoroughly discredited and deeply harmful". She reminded that almost two-thirds of the nearly 80% of Australians who took part in the 2017 postal survey voted in support of marriage equality. "That overwhelming result tells us far more about the values of modern Australia than the outdated and offensive views of this individual," Brown said.

Singh's comments come as One Nation prepares candidates for the Victorian state election in November. The party's vetting process has been criticised. Recently, One Nation was forced to drop candidate Aoi Baxter ahead of the South Australian election after it was revealed a warrant for his arrest had been issued in the UK for allegedly sexually touching a woman in 2024.

Joyce said the party's candidate selection process would improve as it grows. "When something's growing like that, you're going to have growing pains ... and your internal resources won't be able to keep up with the membership as it goes, and the applicants as they go," he said. "As we grow and we get the resources, we also become more proficient. People are allowed to have views, of course – but they've got to be within the Australian guardrails. That's one of our key policies."