Federal government frontbencher Anthony Albanese has admitted he stuck too close to the script - the Hollywood movie script, that is.
Mr Albanese quickly became the object of coalition and Twitter ridicule on Wednesday after delivering a speech that borrowed lines from the Michael Douglas romantic comedy The American President.
"In Australia we have serious challenges to solve and we need serious people to solve them," Mr Albanese told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
"Unfortunately, Tony Abbott is not the least bit interested in fixing anything.
"He is only interested in two things: making Australians afraid of it and telling them who's to blame for it."
The lines bear more than a passing resemblance to those Douglas delivers as fictional US President Andrew Shepherd.
"We have serious problems to solve and we need serious men to solve them," he says.
"And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it.
"He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it."
Liberal Party federal director Brian Loughnane released a YouTube video of the incident and said the plagiarism showed Labor was "unoriginal and devoid of ideas".
After a few hours of trending on Twitter, Mr Albanese issued a tweet of his own through his AlboMP account.
"D'oh! Stuff up (for the record, that comes from another great American, Homer Simpson)," he wrote.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard didn't appear too concerned when she responded to the furore on Twitter.
After presenting actor Geoffrey Rush with the Australian of the Year award Ms Gillard tweeted: "And speaking of actors - I love Michael Douglas because he's married to a Welsh woman. @AlboMP's not bad either."
Ms Gillard was born in Wales, like Mr Douglas's wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.
