BARNABY Joyce finds putting out the washing, whipping up roasts and changing nappies rather cathartic.

The father to newborn Sebastian spends his free time as a “house husband” when he’s not doing his day job as federal MP in Canberra or his NSW electorate. “I think people are surprised when I’m at home I do all the cooking, I do the washing, hang things out,” he told Sky News on Thursday.

The former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader says his bundle of joy with former staffer Vikki Campion is an incredible blessing and he’s enjoying time cooking for the family.

His specialty, apparently, is “the regular roast that become curries that become risotto, and (I) just work my way down”. But he’s “not big on the baking”.

Mr Joyce was photographed by a commercial network with Seb and Ms Campion at Armidale airport earlier in the week.

“Pretty creepy,” he said of the snap which was taken by a member of the public. “You don’t want to lock yourself up forever, but when you go back out into the public you don’t expect someone to go through the process of slyly taking a photo of you.”

The New England MP said the woman who took the photo sent it to her mother’s group, and someone in the group sent it to the media.

“You don’t want to be on public display like some exotic animal in the zoo,” Mr Joyce said.

The 51-year-old, who has four daughters with estranged wife Natalie, also says he’s copping it from mates over being an older dad.

At the rugby recently they told him they’d do a working bee at the local retirement home to prune the tall pine trees.

“(So) when Seb’s playing you’ll be able to see the game mate,” they joked, he said.