The Honourable Members Interjecting

The headcount continued in the House of Reps again yesterday, and just like the parliamentary nerd that I am, I stayed up to watch it on TV last night. But honestly, it was fascinating stuff. You have to feel a little sorry for David Hawker, the parliamentary speaker, if he didn't rule so blatantly on the government's side (which is of course not surprising, given that he's a government MP - which is interesting, given that John Howard pledged an independent speaker once upon a time).

Another thing you miss in Hansard is the colour of the interjections, which is a shame really. Is Opposition Members Interjecting really a way to capture Another bridge too far, Abbott for posterity? (never mind ... we all know history will capture Abbott as a gutless wonder ...)

For the record, yesterday's head count didn't quite reach Wednesday's all-time record, but it was still pretty spectacular and left the Opposition front bench looking pretty bare - and this time included a government MP:

1) The Member for Grayndler, Anthony Albanese (with a `OH THAT'S FAIR, ISN'T IT?')
2) The Member for Lilley, Wayne Swan
3) The Member for Melbourne, Lindsay Tanner (after a particularly odious rant by Peter Costello)
4) The Member for Sydney, Tanya Plibersek
5) The Member for Cowan, Graham Edwards (after an equally odious slang by Tony Abbott, who, as Kim Beazley correctly pointed out, once had to restrain himself from dashing across the chamber to bop the Member for Cowan on one occasion. Don't forget, gentle readers, that the Member for Cowan lost both his legs in a landmine explosion and is wheelchair bound ...)
6) The Member for Fowler, Julia Irwin
7) The Member for Shortland, Jill Hall
8) The Liberal Member for Bass, Michael Ferguson

One interesting point ... today's Sydney Morning Herald contains pictures of Albanese exiting the chamber, yet I was certain that you couldn't take these sorts of pictures in parliament, for fear of encouraging inflammatory acts - hence the controversy over the illegal footage of Bob Brown's heckling of George W. Bush that was taken by an American news crew. Can anyone clarify this?