As a general rule, I don't followmy own country's politics much. America's is much more entertaining, and frankly, probably more relevant to my own life. Plus, I've been pretty disgusted with the quality of the Parliamentary occupants of both sides for some time now.
However, our PM, Julia Gillard, has delivered a thoroughly warranted smackdown to the Leader of the Opposition that I think is worth sharing. A couple of background notes: the PM's father died a few weeks ago. At a Young Liberals dinner, a local radio shock jock claimed that he had died of shame due to his daughter's political conduct. The occasion of the smackdown was a motion from the Opposition to oust the Speaker of the House of Representatives, over some offensively sexist text messages he'd sent. The motion was defeated by one vote, but the Speaker then resigned anyway. Here is the PM opposing the motion: [link]