Barnaby Joyce captured on video lying next to planter box

Barnaby Joyce is no stranger to controversy. And late on Wednesday night, in a quiet Canberra street, he found it again.

The former deputy prime minister, ex-Nationals leader and one-time pub bouncer was seen flat on his back in Lonsdale Street, Braddon.

Joyce told 9News he'd been chatting on his phone, sitting on a pavement planter box, when he fell off.

"If I had known someone was there with a camera, I would have got up quicker," he said.

In the video, Joyce can be heard using colourful language.

Joyce is someone whose personal life has regularly intruded into his public life.

Earlier this week, he called the 29th prime minister Malcolm Turnbull a "shithead" on ABC TV's Nemesis program for using his high office to publicly denounce Joyce over his relationship with staffer Vikki Campion, now Joyce's wife.

In February 2018, Turnbull enacted the so-called "bonk ban" which banned government MPs from having relationships with their employees.

"How many other people in this building are you asking about their personal life?" Joyce remembered asking Turnbull at the time.

"I can nominate a few. Where do you want to start?"

Joyce's fury at Turnbull is perhaps understandable.

As to why he stayed sprawled on a Canberra pavement in heated conversation, perhaps some things defy explanation.