The leader of the National Party has urged Barnaby Joyce to take leave after he mixed medication with alcohol and was filmed swearing into his phone while lying on his back on a Canberra street.

David Littleproud told the ABC he and Mr Joyce had a conversation about the “circumstances” that led to him lying down in the street.

The Nationals MP said Mr Joyce’s behaviour wasn’t “normal” and that he had embarrassed himself and his family.

Mr Littleproud said there were “greater circumstances” to the incident than the public was aware of, beyond the “mixture of medication and alcohol”.

“There’s some family circumstances that his family need to deal with, and I encouraged him to take some time to deal with that emotionally,” Mr Littleproud said.

"To make sure that his family understood that he was there for them but that we were there for Barnaby. That we were going to create an environment for him to be able to address those issues.