Labor MP Graham Perrett ejected from parliament during rowdy question time

An unruly MP has been given a “holiday” and thrown out of parliament after only a few days in Canberra. This is why.

It only took until the second sitting day of the 47th parliament for an unruly MP to be thrown out of the chamber.

Labor MP Graham Perrett became the first MP to be kicked out of the House of Representatives under Milton Dick’s speakership.

The member for Moreton was asked to leave the room during question time on Thursday after he interjected multiple times.

Mr Dick said he had been “crystal clear” in calling for silence and ordered Mr Perrett to leave the room.

“He may be my neighbour, but he is having a holiday,” Mr Dick said as his fellow Queenslander left the chamber.

Mr Perrett had been shouting over the top of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton as he asked Anthony Albanese a question about the Prime Minister’s plan to gut the construction watchdog.

Anthony Albanese shouted about the Ruby Princess debacle during question time on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The Coalition continued its strategy from Wednesday of focusing many of its questions on Labor’s links to the union movement and its scrapping of the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Mr Dutton said the ABCC had a 91 per cent success rate in court and claimed the “militant” CFMEU had given $10m to the Labor Party in a bid to influence policy.

Mr Albanese fired back by accusing the Liberals of being an “anti-union” party.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen appeared to be unimpressed. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The level of decorum in the chamber fluctuated throughout the session.

It reached a low ebb during a clash over foot and mouth disease sparked by Nationals leader David Littleproud.

Mr Littleproud asked Mr Albanese whether he agreed with Western Australia’s Labor Agriculture Minister who said the disease would not be catastrophic and suggested that its entry to Australia could possibly make milk and meat cheaper.

Mr Albanese defended his government’s biosecurity response before attacking the Coalition over the 2020 Ruby Princess cruise ship Covid-19 fiasco.

“This is the same mob that let the Ruby Princess come in, a bit more noticeable than a pair of shoes … it was docked at Sydney Harbour,” he shouted.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers was told to ‘cool his jets a little bit’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Later, NDIS and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten savaged the Coalition over robodebt in response to a Dorothy Dixer from Adelaide MP Steve Georganas.

Mr Shorten said the royal commission into the scandal would most likely start in the final quarter of this year in the hope it could be finished by mid-2023.

He called the use of the automated Centrelink debt recovery scheme a “shameful chapter in commonwealth public administration”.

“If we don’t learn from the mistakes which the previous government has never owned up to, then we can make it again,” he said.