Plenty of fun was had at the expense of a subdued and sarky Treasurer yesterday in the
first Question Time since June.

Dollar Sweetie got a dixer on the Census.
“Count the numbers in the Liberal Party,” Lindsay Tanner interjected, as his
Labor colleagues made chicken noises.

“Why did the Treasurer cross the road?”,
Brendan O’Connor yelled.

“Why wouldn’t the Treasurer cross the
road?”, contributed Dick Adams.

But the best line came from Duncan Kerr.
“Where’s Bruce Goodluck when you need him?” A bit obscure?

Well, Goodluck was the member for the
Tasmanian seat of Franklin between 1975 and 1993, and it’s thought he might
have some knowledge of this episode one balmy spring evening in 1985 described
in Chapter Four of House of Representatives Practice, Disorder and Disturbances:

Person dressed
as a chicken (assumed to be a Member, but not conclusively identified) entered
the Chamber and sat down on the front bench. Chair ordered removal but person
left Chamber and was not apprehended.

PS. The bird motif also appeared later in
Question Time. As Mark Vaile insisted the Doha round of trade
negotiations was still alive, a cry of “It’s pining for the fjords” came from
the Labor benches.