This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Barnaby Joyce has posted videos of himself confronting a photographer on the street, saying he cannot even go to church without being harassed.

“Coming out of church, guess who is hiding in the bushes taking photos, yet won’t give his name or who he works for,” Joyce tweeted. “We did the Sunday program to stop this, this is why we need a tort of privacy.”

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The ugly confrontation comes after Joyce, who applied for medical leave from parliament last month, admitted to lobbying New South Wales Nationals MPs recently to oppose a bill implementing 150m “safe access zones” around abortion clinics in NSW to prevent protesters from harassing women who are trying to enter the clinics.

In the videos Joyce posted to Twitter, he repeatedly demands to know the photographer’s name and the media outlet he works for but the photographer won’t tell him.

In one video, the photographer accuses Joyce of behaving in an intimidating fashion, telling Joyce he should go back to his regular job “as a bouncer”.

“How can you seriously come out of church and size someone up to punch them?” the photographer says.

“I didn’t size you up to punch you,” Joyce replies.

“Yes you did, you pulled your right hand back and if I hadn’t actually walked away you would have clubbed me,” the photographer says.

Barnaby Joyce (@Barnaby_Joyce) Coming out of church, guess who is hiding in the bushes taking photos, yet won’t give his name or who he works for pic.twitter.com/YNi4hRj4qU

In the same video a local man on the street takes Joyce’s side in the argument, accusing the photographer of hiding behind a tree “like a rotten snake, mate”.

“Can’t he just even come to church to pray to God without you [here]?” the man says. “What are you doin’ mate? Leave us alone.”

Joyce has repeatedly complained in recent months about being harassed by the media, saying drones have been flying over his house and paparazzi have been waiting at the airport for him.

He said he agreed to a controversial $150,000 tell-all interview with his partner, Vikki Campion, to try to make the media interest in their relationship die down.

During that interview with Channel Seven, he revealed he had campaigned to hold the seat of New England for the government during last year’s byelection while knowing he would soon have to stand down as leader of the National party and deputy prime minister because Campion had fallen pregnant.

During the interview the couple refused to answer questions about precisely when their relationship started, and he shut down questions about a public confrontation between Campion and his former wife of two decades, Natalie.