One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has backed party leader Pauline Hanson after she was photographed by the pool with billionaire Gina Rinehart at a high-end resort in Italy.

Hanson and the mining magnate, who is a benefactor for One Nation, were seen this week in Taormina, the Sicilian holiday destination featured in season two of The White Lotus.

Joyce downplayed the trip, saying it was simply a vacation.

“It’s a holiday, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t care if it’s Dolce Gabbana or Prada, as long as you’re paying for it, darling, I don’t care,” Joyce told Today.

“A person’s allowed to have free time and she’s having free time over there.”

Joyce said he will soon travel to Italy himself to meet his daughter’s partner’s family, and brushed aside suggestions Hanson’s overseas break could be being funded by Rinehart.

“I don’t know, I imagine I would say it’d be a fair bet that Gina has supported it somehow, I’m just being straight with you… but it’s her money, it’s her time and it’s school holidays, so if they’ve taken some time off to go to a resort, well, good luck to them,” he said.

“I mean, it wouldn’t blow my hair back, I think, but I’m not really cut out for that type of stuff.”

He said he did not know whether Hanson planned to declare the Italy trip when she returned to work, but argued there was no conflict in her travelling with Rinehart.

“If you’re friends with them, what’s the problem? I’m mates with people… do we have a sort of a list of people that we can be mates with and list we can’t?” he said.

“If someone believes in you, I suppose they’re going to be friends and there’s nothing too unusual about that.”

Hanson has also combined work with her time overseas, including a visit to the UK where she appeared on the podcast of controversial far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

During that episode, she added to speculation that her daughter Lee could eventually take over the leadership of One Nation, while stressing that any such path would have to be earned.

“She’s got the potential, but I don’t believe in nepotism and she has to prove herself, not only to me, but also to the other members and to the public and everything like that,” she said.