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Posted: 2022-12-16 11:32:26

Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has revealed he drank five bowls of kava in Vanuatu a day before downing a more potent Micronesian version of the traditional Pacific drink, forcing him to hospital.

The Nationals frontbencher has returned to Australia where he's described going "cross-eyed" and throwing up after finishing a ceremonial shell of local kava known as "sakau", which he sculled in front of Micronesia's president and assembled dignitaries.

"I drank down the whole lot in one hit," Mr McCormack told reporters after arriving home in Australia.

"Now in the South Pacific, you tip some on the ground out of respect for the gods, and you drink the rest in a mouthful or two, but drinking in one gulp. It's not as potent as what we encountered up at Micronesia."

"It just hit me. Overwhelming. It's like a sedative. Like a drunken feeling," the Shadow Minister for the Pacific explained.

Throughout this week's tour of three Pacific nations, a bi-partisan parliamentary delegation led by Foreign Minister Penny Wong was welcomed with traditional ceremonies which included the Australian MPs drinking kava.

Australian and Vanuatu officials drink from small bowls under a blue tent.
Australian frontbenchers Pat Conroy, Penny Wong, Michael McCormack and Simon Birmingham drank kava with officials in Vanuatu on Tuesday.(Supplied: Sarah Friend, DFAT )

On Wednesday the cross-party group arrived in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) for a meeting with President David Panuelo, followed by a formal reception marking 35 years of diplomatic relations with Australia.

Vision captured by an ABC television camera shows the visibly ill Riverina MP being attended to by travelling staff members, before being helped to a waiting car by DFAT staff and an AFP officer.

He was then rushed from the Congress building to a nearby medical clinic for observations and tests, before being discharged and spending the night in the Australian ambassador's residence.

Michael McCormack helped by officials into a black car as people in floral headdresses watch on.
Michael McCormack was helped into the back of a car before being taken away. (ABC News: Andrew Greene)

The medical drama meant the Shadow Minister for the Pacific was unable to fly onto Palau, the final scheduled destination of the parliamentary delegation's four-day trip.

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