Plenty of sore heads in Canberra today after the annual parliamentary knees-up, waking to the shocking news that — after an apparent failure in common sense and personal responsibility — an inquiry by NSW pollies will consider a sauce ban in Parliament. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

“The NSW upper house has passed a motion asking the procedures committee to inquire into and report on alcohol consumption by MPs during parliamentary sitting hours …

“A motion put by the Greens MP John Kaye and passed by the upper house on Wednesday ‘confirms that it is inappropriate for a member to attend the house while under the influence of alcohol’.

“It calls on the procedures committee to inquire into drinking by MPs during sitting hours and ‘give consideration to a total ban on alcohol consumption by members on sitting days before the last bell and appropriate ways to enforce it’.”

This all comes in the wake of NSW Finance Minister Greg Pearce allegedly getting a little “tired and emotional” in the chamber last month. He’s taken a month-long sickie to recover.

Kaye says he’s particularly concerned about MPs voting while drunk. Given some of the decisions that have come from Australian Parliaments of late, perhaps that’s not such a bad thing.

And given the wretched state of political debate across the nation, we’ve been driven to drink just to witness it. A tipsy pollie or two couldn’t possibly make it any worse.