Parliament has sport with humble functionaries.

(From Canberra Times)

Yesterday's vituperative debate was held where Question Time used to be - and raised a whole lot of questions of its own.

Is it right and proper to reveal the substance of conversations with the Deputy Secretary (security and intelligence) in the Department of Defence? Mark Latham thinks so.

''I suppose I wish there was a record of interview giving word-for-word what Mr [Ron] Bonighton said about the Government's record on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,'' the Opposition Leader said. ''I walked away from that briefing knowing and understanding the Government's policy in Iraq was a fiasco - an absolute fiasco.'' Is it right and proper for a senior Opposition frontbencher to use parliamentary privilege to attack the veracity of senior public servants' correspondence.Julia Gillard thinks so.

''At whose insistence were they written, and how do we know, given the track record of the last fortnight and everything that happened with the Australian Federal Police Commissioner, [Mick Keelty] that these are not completely self- serving untrue versions that the Government has sought to procure to assist with its political agenda.'' Is it right and proper to ask public servants to recollect, in writing, their security briefings to the Opposition Leader? Treasurer Peter Costello and Defence Minister Robert Hill think so.

Said Costello: ''Since he [Latham] said to this House that he had had lengthy discussions about Iraq from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - the briefings which he was offered - the natural thing was to ask the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade when these lengthy discussions had occurred. So Mr Murray McLean, the Acting Secretary, was asked.'' ...