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Barnaby Joyce takes swipe at actor Johnny Depp as ‘terrier gate’ reignited

Catie McLeodNCA NewsWire
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Camera IconNot Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has called Johnny Depp a “deads**t” on breakfast television as he waded back into his infamous biosecurity row with the Hollywood actor and his ex-wife.

Amber Heard and her then-husband Depp made headlines in 2015 after she attempted to bring her two Yorkshire terriers into Australia on a private jet without declaring them to customs.

The Aquaman star was flying to visit Depp on the Gold Coast where he was filming an instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

Ms Heard reignited “terrier gate” on Monday, when she revealed she had named her new dog after the deputy prime minister.

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She posted a photograph on Twitter of herself holding a large, shaggy dog with the caption “Meet the newest member of the Heard family, Barnaby Joyce!”

Six years ago, then-agriculture minister Mr Joyce gave Depp and Ms Heard a 50-hour deadline to get their terriers Pistol and Boo out of Australia or hand them over to customs to be euthanised.

Mr Joyce said on Tuesday he was flattered Heard had named her new hound after him, even if it was it was “kind of crazy”.

“I can’t work it out. I’d forgotten about her. She was out of my mind, but I’m in her mind. I’m in there like a bee, I’m just buzzing around her brain,” he told Sunrise.

“What I love is ‘Barnaby Joyce’, as if there is another Barnaby in her life.”

Mr Joyce took a swipe at Depp, whom Heard has accused of assault following their separation.

“I got Johnny right, you know she was all ‘Johnny is lovely, Johnny is lovely’. Johnny is a deads**t,” he said.

After her customs breach, Heard pleaded guilty in a Queensland court in 2016 to inadvertently falsifying her passenger arrival card.

She was fined $1000 and sentenced to a good behaviour bond.

REMEMBRANCE DAY
Camera IconDeputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has waded back into the biosecurity row. NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray Credit: News Corp Australia

Heard and Depp filmed a bizarre scripted apology video which went viral and was roundly mocked for how forced it seemed.

“They look like two terrorists in a basement in Lebanon, they’re crazy guys,” Mr Joyce said of the clip on Tuesday.

Heard, who married Depp in 2015, filed for divorce the following year, alleging the actor had been verbally and physically abusive during their relationship.

Depp has denied the allegations.

Originally published as Barnaby Joyce takes swipe at actor Johnny Depp as ‘terrier gate’ reignited

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