Barnaby Joyce has distanced the One Nation party from a candidate who stated that LGBTQI people have a mental illness, asserting that the organization is "one of the gayest parties in Australia."
Parminder Singh, the party's candidate for Western Australia's upper house in the 2025 election, was identified as having made anti-gay statements in a social media video. Following the video's emergence, Singh, who was third on One Nation's upper house ticket, was removed from the party's website.
Joyce stated that the candidate's comments do not reflect the party's stance. "People are allowed to have views, of course, but they've got to be within the Australian guardrails," Joyce told ABC TV. "We're one of the gayest parties in Australia. He obviously doesn't know One Nation because we got a surprise for him. We have quite a large proportion of gay people, and they're all the same. They don't want to be glorified. They don't want to be vilified."
Joyce described the comments as highly offensive and suggested Singh may not have spent enough time around farms, referencing the prevalence of gay animals. He acknowledged that the party faces challenges with its vetting processes as it expands.
"When something's growing like that, you're going to have growing pains, and you're going to have your internal resources (that) won't be able to keep up with the membership as it goes and the applicants as they go," Joyce said.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie declined to comment on Joyce's remarks but stated that "Australia's gay community is not mentally ill as this One Nation candidate purports." McKenzie added that many gay individuals are joining the National and Liberal parties in her home state of Victoria due to dissatisfaction with the Labor government and concerns about Islamic extremism.