Joyce says he feels a "real sense of accomplishment" after learning about the sultry actress’s name choice for her scruffy white pet dog.

Ms Heard, a television and movie star, named her dog after the Australian politician in reference to a 2015 feud over a quarantine breach involving two other dogs.

That year, 2015, the actress brought two dogs, Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo, to Australia without permission when she went to Queensland to visit her then husband Johnny Depp.

Depp, who had already twice been voted sexiest man alive, was filming one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films there

The couple were given an ultimatum: the dogs had to leave in a matter of days or they would be put down

Hurriedly, the two dogs were flown back to the US before being sent to canine heaven.

Heard was subsequently charged with two counts of illegally importing dogs into Australia and one count of producing a false document.

At the time, a verbal prize fight took place with Depp and Heard in the blue corner and Joyce - then agriculture minister – in the red corner.

Joyce said the dogs should "bugger off back to the United States" or risk being put down.

Depp, in Jack Sparrow mode, swung back with a stiff right hook by referring to Mr Joyce as some kind of "sweaty, big-gutted man from Australia".

Then, in what could have been the knockout punch, Depp said Joyce appeared to be “inbred with a tomato.”

However, this latest episode in the showdown could have Mr Joyce winning the bout as he said was "fine" with the name choice for Heard’s dog and added he had "no problems with animals".

Then, came his knockout punch.

"I get a real sense of accomplishment that I'm still in her head long after I've forgotten about them," he said. "Obviously, I now rate above Johnny Depp,” he added.

The last jab cheekily referenced Heard’s filing for divorce from Depp in 2016.

Mercifully, Heard kept the dogs that were at the centre of the 2015 scandal in Australia.