Barnaby Joyce defends One Nation as 'one of the gayest parties' after candidate's homophobic remarks

Barnaby Joyce has defended One Nation as “one of the gayest parties in Australia” after comments surfaced from one of its failed candidates describing same-sex attraction as a mental illness.

The former National turned One Nation MP was asked to respond to a series of homophobic comments made by a former Western Australian legislative council candidate for One Nation in a video last month, as first reported by ABC on Wednesday afternoon.

Parminder Singh, who was third on the party’s ticket at the WA election in 2025, told online personality Jasky Singh, known as Mr Sikkant, that he believed gay people have a mental illness and that marriage equality should not have been legalised.

Though Singh claimed not to have a problem with gay people, he took issue with them “advertising” their sexuality.

“You [don’t] need to gay parade in city,” he said.

Guardian Australia has contacted Singh for comment.

Joyce was asked about Singh’s comments on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing after a page linking to his candidacy was taken down from One Nation’s website.

The One Nation MP said while he didn’t have the power to disendorse someone, the comments were “highly offensive”.

“He obviously doesn’t know One Nation because we got a surprise for him. We have quite a large proportion of gay people,” he said.

“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 added that he believed his political party was “one of the gayest parties in Australia”.

One Nation’s South Australian MP James Virgo is gay.

Anna Brown, the chief executive of Equality Australia, described Singh’s comments as “demonstrably false, thoroughly discredited and deeply harmful”.

“People can hear what these candidates have to say and make their own judgment about whether those views reflect the Australia they want to live in, and whether they are consistent with contemporary Australian values,” Brown said.

“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“That overwhelming result tells us far more about the values of modern Australia than the outdated and offensive views of this individual.”

Singh’s comments come as One Nation readies its candidates ahead of the Victorian state election in November.

The minor party’s vetting process has been criticised for lacking thorough examination.

Most recently, One Nation was forced to dump one of its candidates, Aoi Baxter, ahead of the South Australian state election after the ABC revealed a warrant for his arrest had been issued in the UK for allegedly sexually touching a woman in 2024 without consent.

Joyce said the minor party’s candidate selection process would improve as the party grew.

“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, and 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.”