Politicians will tell you they work hard, and for the most part that’s true.
There are people to meet, schedules to keep, funds to raise and elections to win.
Many of our representatives even read the laws they are bound by their party rooms to support or oppose.
Aside from the odd helicopter trip here or family holiday to Uluru there (all on the taxpayer, of course), politicians can usually be found slaving in their electorates or chained to the plush leather backbenches of parliament house.
Of course, no sensible voter would begrudge a politician, who bears an important responsibility in our society, a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.
But the idea that our taxes paid for the appalling and childish conduct of Labor’s senators on Wednesday should make us furious.
Labor senators, no better than the student politicans most of them were, shouted a countdown as the veterans affairs minister Michael Ronaldson tried to answer a question asked of him by Palmer United senator Dio Wang.
That’s a senator elected by Western Australians to hold the government to account.
A senator who was trying to do his job, and a minister trying to do his.
President of the Senate Stephen Parry struggled to control members from both sides.
Truly astonishing was Penny Wong, Labor’s leader in the Senate, as she sat amused by the performance of her Labor colleagues, then disinterested in the admonishments of President Parry.
“That was appalling,” he said.
“I trust that senators understand that you're televised. I expect better behaviour than this. That was very pathetic…what we have just witnessed from my left was very disappointing.”
It’s seems some in parliament find it a fine lark to shout down those with whom they disagree.
That we pay for them to do it is wrong.
Follow Nathan Hondros on Twitter: @nathanhondros.
