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Put your whiteboard away, Pyne tells Cash

Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has told colleague Michaelia Cash to put away the whiteboard after bizarre scenes in Parliament House.

Australian Jobs Minister Michaelia Cash holds a pencil to her chin.
Michaelia Cash has been criticised for walking behind a whiteboard at Parliament House. (AAP)

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A federal cabinet minister has advised Senator Michaelia Cash to "put the whiteboards away" after the minister's bizarre entrance to a parliamentary hearing.

Jobs minister Michaelia Cash was shielded from the media with a large, mobile whiteboard on Thursday as she arrived for the Senate committee inquiry inside Parliament House.

Senator Cash has been under pressure this week after erupting in fury during questioning at an earlier hearing and threatening to publicly detail rumours involving female staffers in Bill Shorten's office and name them.

On Thursday she withdrew her threat "unreservedly", without complying with Labor demands she personally apologise to the staffers.

Asked if Senator Cash was hiding from journalist and photographers, Mr Pyne said he didn't know whose idea it was to use a whiteboard.

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"People should put their whiteboards away and go through the normal process," he told Nine Network.

"There is nothing to see here, just keep moving."

Mr Pyne also referenced the so-called sports rorts affair of 1994, which involved a whiteboard.

Then-Labor minister Ros Kelly was forced to quit after being ridiculed for the way she decided the distribution of $30 million worth of sports grants by using a "great big whiteboard" in her office.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday defended his minister, saying Senator Cash had been "provoked" into making the threat by the Labor MP who was questioning her.

"Senator Cash was being bullied and provoked by Senator (Doug) Cameron who was making insinuations about staff," he told parliament.

"She made a response which she has unreservedly withdrawn."


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