Perin Davey staunchly defends she was not drunk during senate estimates and was ‘able and capable’ to do her job

Footage emerged of Ms Davey appearing to slur her words as she answered questions in front of a parliamentary committee on February 13 after she had attended Nationals staff drinks. 

The party’s deputy leader later told Sky News Australia she had two glasses of red wine prior to her appearance, but said: “I don’t think I was drunk”.

Ms Davey has since revealed a medical condition was why she stumbled over her words, having undergone two lots of emergency surgery in 2019 for an abscess in her tonsils.

Speaking on The Kenny Report on Wednesday night, Ms Davey reiterated her medical condition could cause her to slur her words from time to time. 

“I did my job… (with) my medical condition … my throat catches, I slur occasionally when I’m really tired,” she told the Sky News host. 

“I feel pressure on my facial muscles. It changes the way I speak.

“But I admit I had a couple of drinks.”

Ms Davey highlighted how proud and “excited” she was about her appearance in front of the senate committee before Kenny interjected asked why she would not “just concede” she was impacted by alcohol, pointing to a separate incident with Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce a fortnight ago.

“It seemed to me you were obviously affected by alcohol. Why don’t you just concede that point and move on instead of always trying to make other… adding in other reasons?” he asked. 

The Senator doubled down on her answer, reiterating she was not drunk during the meeting. 

“Well, because I still maintain that I do not believe I was drunk and I will stand by that,” Ms Davey said. 

“I still maintain that I was able and capable to do my job which I did… and testament to the fact that I did my job is the answer to the responses I get, which are now on Hansard.”

The Sky News host pressed if she believed she was in a “condition to drive a car”. 

“I wouldn’t know. I mean… we don’t have random breath testing in parliament,” Ms Davey replied. 

“But, if we did, I would subject myself to it.”

Weighing into the topic after Ms Davey’s interview, journalist Justin Smith asked how the Senator could “defend drinking at all” before an estimates hearing.

“I wrote a column in the paper about Barnaby Joyce and I said, look, you know, about 5,000 days ago, I was the guy lying on the footpath,” he told Kenny during a panel debate. 

“So, I’m not going to pass judgement. But how can the how can the Senator defend drinking at all before going into the Senate Estimates Committee?”

Fellow Sky News host Liz Storer blasted Ms Davey’s response when she was asked if she was in a state to get behind the wheel of a car after the committee hearing.

“The answer you’re supposed to give is, ‘I am absolutely, in fact I drove home that evening… what are you talking about?’ Storer said. 

“Instead it was like, ‘Well, if there was a breathalyser there I would have taken it’.”

Ms Davey told 2BS Bathurst radio earlier this week the abscess in her tonsils “completely erupted” while on a flight to Germany five years ago, damaging her facial muscles and tissue in her throat muscles. 

“I had full blown sepsis, and I was in the hospital for 11 days and kind of lost count of the amount of antibiotic transfusions I had,” she told host Dusty Fitzpatrick on Tuesday.

Ms Davey said she was warned at the time her speech would be impacted and had been “very conscious of it ever since”.

She explained she had never spoken about her medical condition publicly as she believed it should be “personal”, voicing her frustration at needing to elaborate to avoid further scrutiny. 

Her comments follow a separate incident involving fellow Nationals MP, Mr Joyce, who was captured on video a fortnight ago lying on a footpath in Canberra after falling off a planter box. 

Mr Joyce has since blamed a concoction of alcohol and prescription medication for the late-night fell, and has denied he has a drinking problem.