Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has turned a bizarre rant on biodiversity into a mud-slinging match with the ALP in Parliament.

Mr Joyce, who threatened to kill two dogs owned by Hollywood actor Johnny Depp last year, continued the animal-threatening theme in the tirade on Monday afternoon.

“If there is one thing we are focused on, that is making sure of the environmental health of our rivers and waterways … we know it is incredibly important because we are reflected in this nation with these disgusting, mud-sucking creatures, bottom-dwelling, mud-sucking creatures,” Mr Joyce said.

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“The only form of control is a version of herpes to try and get rid of these disgusting, mud-sucking creatures.”

Mr Joyce was supposedly describing a new $15 million carp eradication program, but he gestured at Labor members throughout the speech whenever he used pejorative terms like “disgusting” and “mud-sucking” – words that would breach parliamentary rules if they were openly directed at MPs.

Taken on face value, the program will see a strain of the herpes virus, which only affects European carp, released into Australian waterways by the end of 2018.

Carp inflict severe damage in Australia, competing with native fish for food, impacting water quality and causing erosion.

Experts estimated the virus would kill about 95 per cent of the pest species over the next 30 years.

“We will move forward on this because, can you believe, we should be getting rid of these disgusting, mud-sucking creatures, for more support for some of the better animals in our waterways, like the silver perch, the yellow belly, the Murray cod and the eastern cod and the catfish, but we don’t want to have to deal with the carp,” Mr Joyce said.

Almost every “carp” reference was boomed in the direction of the Labor benches.

“You’ll have to bury the carp, put it outside, put it in the paddocks, bury it, put it underground, take the place of horse manure or something.

“You have got to go to some extreme measures at times to make sure we keep our economy and our environment healthy, even if it does require a version of a venereal disease to deal with it.”

See video of the rant below:

See the condensed version below: