Barnaby Joyce claims the brouhaha that erupted after he stopped a tense ABC TV interview to shout at his dog highlights the “regional-city divide”.

The incident occurred when One Nation’s deputy leader was being grilled by 7.30 journalist Sarah Ferguson about Pauline Hanson’s meeting in the UK with far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, and her comments about Australian Muslims.

Ferguson had just asked if he was “comfortable with where she [Hanson] is taking you” when the One Nation deputy leader lost his temper with the dog, who could not be seen on camera.

Turning to the side, he yelled: “Sit down!”

“Sorry, it’s the dog,” he said, looking back to face Ferguson.

Joyce then argued that recent polls had shown Australians wanted a change in direction for the country, but stopped again later when pressed on whether One Nation would require doctors to report people overstaying their visas to the authorities.

“I have to apologise for this dog, which has decided to bail up….” he began, before Ferguson sternly told him not to worry about the pet and “just answer the question”.

“Don’t be rude. Don’t be rude. Otherwise this interview will come to a grinding halt, Sarah,” Joyce snapped back, before stumbling and asking her to repeat the question.

Joyce later revealed that the pooch who caused the interruptions was a young staffy-border collie cross farm dog called Stella.

“People in the regions laugh about it,” Joyce told Nine newspapers’ CBD column on Tuesday. “People in the inner city think it’s a war crime.”

He explained that Stella had come under the deck where he was standing during the interview, and was causing him to miss some of Ferguson’s questions.

Hanson – who was met by about 200 protesters when she spoke at an event in Perth on Tuesday – later posted her own take on the 7.30 interview on Facebook, describing it as “hostile”.

“You have to love live tv from home,” the post said.

“Poor Barnaby had to put up with his dog distracting him during an already hostile ABC interview.”

During his appearance on the program, Joyce claimed Hanson’s meeting with Robinson wasn’t initiated by One Nation but was suggested by Channel Seven’s Spotlight program – which the network has denied.

Hanson’s visit to a luxury Italian hotel last week with billionaire benefactor Gina Rinehart, and her later attendance at a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show in Sicily, was also raised during the interview.

Ferguson mentioned Joyce having himself returned a cheque for $45,000 given to him by Rinehart in the past, asking why it was “okay for Pauline Hanson to take planes and lavish five-star travel from the same person”.

“First of all I don’t know whether that’s the case – I suggest that it probably is, but I don’t know…,” he replied. “If she hasn’t paid for it… it will be on the declaration of interest like everything else is.”

Pauline Hanson and Gina Rinehart at the Grand Hotel San Pietro. Photos: Instagram

He went on to insist Rinehart didn’t get anything out of her donations to One Nation, pondering why any individual or organisation donated to a political party of any persuasion.

“I don’t know why they do it all. Sometimes I can’t work out why they have that sort of loyalty. It just absolutely bemuddles me.”

On Tuesday, Hanson defended her relationship with Rinehart and denied taxpayers footed the bill for any part of her trip to Italy.

“This is a woman that’s done it tough … and you think that she’s come with a silver spoon? She didn’t,” the One Nation leader said at a Seven West Media event in Perth.

“She had to borrow everything and was flat out in the very start to pay the bills. She’s built up that company.

“A very smart, clever woman and even now to this day … who gives jobs to thousands of Australians? Who pays one of the companies’ biggest taxes in the state?”

Hanson insisted her visit to Sicily with Rinehart “didn’t cost the taxpayer one cent”.

About three dozen uniformed and plain clothes police were deployed around and inside the Crown resort complex in Perth where she was speaking, with around 200 protesters out the front chanting “we say no to white Australia”.

The Liberals are also in damage control on Tuesday after comments from one of their senators, Alex Antic, when he declined to rule out a partnership between One Nation and his own party in South Australia.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor slapped down the proposal.

“That will not be happening. I can assure you of that,” he told reporters on the Gold Coast.

“The Liberal Party is strong in South Australia and will remain strong in South Australia, and there won’t be any kind of merger or coalition.

“Whatever Alex’s view … that is what’s going to happen, we won’t be merging.”

–with AAP