One Nation will sell “sitdown” dog leads after Barnaby Joyce’s bombastic TV appearance at the beginning of the week.
On Monday evening, clips of Mr Joyce went viral as he broke away from answering a question on ABC’s 7.30 to yell at his dog, Stella, to “sit down”.
Pauline Hanson’s outfit announced on Thursday its intention to capitalise on the outburst by selling the branded merch.
“Barnaby’s dog received more media attention than the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader, Angus Taylor, this week following an ABC live cross where he was forced to tell his dog to sit down mid-interview,” Ms Hanson tweeted.
“To mark the memorable moment that went viral, One Nation has launched a limited number of ‘Sitdown’, Barnaby dog leashes.”
The site has only released AI-generated images of a box reading: “Sitdown / Barnaby’s dog leads.”
It does not include, however, what the lead would look like.
The announcement comes after Mr Joyce attracted mixed reactions to roaring at his dog during the live ABC interview on Monday.
Partway through the interview with host Sarah Ferguson, in which he was being grilled on Ms Hanson’s recent “white Australia” comments, he broke off from the discussion to yell at his dog.
He added “sorry, it’s the dog,” before resuming the interview.
As Ferguson pressed him on a mass deportation manifesto presented to his leader while in the UK, Mr Joyce apologised for his dog again.
“I have to apologise for this dog, which has decided to bail up,” he said.
Ferguson instructed him: “Don’t worry about the dog, just answer the question”.
Mr Joyce then told the host not to be “rude”.
“Don’t be rude, otherwise this interview will come to a grinding halt, Sarah,” he said.
On Wednesday, he apologised for the outburst, despite his boss publicly backing him on Tuesday and describing the incident as “funny”.
Mr Joyce said the dog “was right underneath my feet, underneath the deck … just barking” and he “couldn’t hear the questions”.
“And Sarah Ferguson’s getting a fair run-up and giving me some media chin music, and … I’m not on the balls of my toes – I’m not playing the good shots, so I’m getting a little bit angry,” he told Nine’s Today.
“And then I verbally assaulted the dog, which I’m incredibly sorry for.”
Ms Hanson addressed the incident during a question-and-answer session with the West Australian.
“I laughed, it’s funny, that’s (Mr Joyce), you know,” she said.
“This is why I love the people around me, we’re just human, we’re just human, okay? The dog’s fine.”