Barnaby Joyce limping after clash with Dorper

In what some may describe as an act of karma dedicated to Johnny Depp’s dogs Boo and Pistol, Nationals leader and Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce was struck by a Dorper while working on his farm near Tamworth in northern NSW yesterday.

Mr Joyce spoke on 2GB Radio today about the unnerving incident with the meat-breed that was first introduced into Australia in 1996 and developed in South Africa during the 1930s.

“I was loading sheep yesterday and I’ve got Dorpers - they’re called biblical sheep - they’re bloody…from out in the desert,” he said.

“A Dorper ram lined me up in the yards and in the race.

“It hit me once in the knee and I just said a whole heap of profanities that spewed forth from my mouth.

“I should have done the smart thing and got out of the way because all it did was hit me again and now I’m hobbling around like an old geriatric.”

But on a serious note, Mr Joyce overcame his painful knee injury to hold talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the Coalition agreement today that’s needed to formalise government.

He said the two party leaders were unable to finalise the terms of any agreement until the Governor General returned to Australia from France.

“No one can get sworn in until he gets back,” he said.

“It’s like marriage - marry in haste, repent at leisure.

“Make sure you get the agreement right and that’s what I intend to do.”