Barnaby Joyce’s backs One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s criticism of PM’s mum

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has backed his boss’s widely condemned criticism of Anthony Albanese’s late mother, saying the Prime Minister’s log cabin story “doesn’t wash”.

Maryanne Albanese spent much of her life in public housing in Sydney’s Inner West, where she raised her son by herself.

They survived on Ms Albanese’s disability pension because severe rheumatoid arthritis crippled her joints.

Mr Albanese often speaks about his mother and poor upbringing, which One Nation leader Pauline Hanson dismissed as “pathetic” in a recently unearthed interview earlier this year.

She told broadcaster-turned-podcaster Karl Stefanovic those in public housing on the street where she grew up “had jobs”.

“Housing commission houses should not be there for people to live in them for 30, 40 (years), and he said his mother lived in the same one she was born in for 65 years,” Senator Hanson said.

“You have been given a hand up, move it on to the next ones coming through.”

Amid condemnation from across parliament, Mr Joyce said on Monday his leader’s comments had merit.

“I’ve said quite clearly that I don’t know the Prime Minister’s mother,” he told Seven, adding that he was “sure she’s a very, very good woman”.

“But the whole … log cabin story of living in a housing commission home that the Prime Minister rolls out over and over again for a person who owns multiple houses … it just doesn’t wash.

He went on to say that Senator Hanson did not call Mr Albanese’s mother “a bad woman” or claim “she had done some form of theft or anything like that”.

“The question was put to her about public housing, and I stand by what she said,” Mr Joyce said.

“The premise of that question was: should people live in public housing forever?

“Which the answer is no, because we just don’t have enough public (housing).”