Malcolm Turnbull's question time theatricals are rationed, but when he gets a go his lethal whimsy raises political abuse to a classier level.
Turnbull's cameo on Tuesday, in response to a seemingly innocent question from a Liberal backbencher about how the NBN is progressing, was a case in point.
Innocent nothing. Turnbull's target was his old opponent Stephen Conroy, who used to be the minister in charge of the NBN and who'd just chucked multiple wobblies while interrogating NBN Co chief executive Ziggy Switkowski in senate estimates.
It was, Turnbull said gravely, Conroy's "rage against the truth" and his "solitary war of denial".
He noted that Conroy, who's now defence spokesman, no longer has any responsibilities for the NBN.
But he found - in the jungles of the Philippines - an admittedly tenuous link between defence and Conroy's performance.
That was Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who, refusing to believe the war was over, famously fought on for 28 more years.
Turnbull's punchline: Will it be 28 years before Stephen Conroy finally surrenders to the truth of the greatest infrastructure debacle in Australian history?
Silly, perhaps, but a change from the normal political fare.
Like Joe Hockey, who declared Labor doesn't give a damn about vulnerable people before goading another old foe, Wayne Swan, with "Don't go Swannee. We want you to stay."
Or Labor backbencher Graham Perrett shouting across at the prime minister "One trick Tony".
While that earned Perrett a one hour expulsion, he had a point for Abbott and his ministers were going on and on - for the second day running - about the desperate need to repeal the carbon tax.
If you want to help Qantas, scrap the tax. If you want to improve regional transport, scrap the tax. If you want to help small business, axe this tax.
That last little rhyme came from Bruce Billson.
Julie Bishop even managed to turn what started as a sober discussion about relations with Canada into a carbon tax diatribe.
The smart Canadians were doing well, she explained, because they'd had nothing to do with the destructive impost.
