Why should this issue even BE an issue? It is school yard level...

Why should this issue even BE an issue? It is school yard level immaturity from both sides, at best!

If parliament was a more professional environment with more professional behaviour from all individuals in attendance to begin with, rubbish like this wouldn't get a chance to seed.

Parliament should operate a similar fashion to courtrooms, company meeting rooms, conferences, etc, where near silence from the audience is usually maintained during all proceedings. With speakers, even if unliked or boring, having respect during presentations for the simple fact that they have the podium and are speaking. And also out of respect for other listeners. The judge/chairman/MC also having solid control of proceedings, simply for the fact they are managing (alleged) adults who know how to behave in an effective meeting/debating space, as opposed to the immature child like behaviour we see in parliament. Waiting more than a few seconds for quite from adults in a professional setting, every few seconds, is ridiculous no matter how heated the debate might be.

The slander and immature environment inside parliament is unproductive in function and extremely time wasting. How much money is Australia wasting every day by having all those salaried individuals sitting there, at the expense of taxpayers, waiting for silence every few seconds?

How much money is wasted, waiting for silly game plays and comments to end from both sides, or get discussed in length once they occur, when most working adults ceased such behaviour well before considering themselves "professionals" ready to work in the real world?

In business world fashion:
add up the salaries x the number of individuals sitting (everyone from PM and Ministers to guards, secretaries and media personnel) x time wasted.

The majority of professional adults respect public meeting procedure simply for the fact that it is a system that helps the world functions more effectively. Why shouldn't politicians be expected to perform and present themselves professionally in similar settings too?

As for the issue of "being sexist" via a cat sound. Get over it! Politicians are (meant to be) strong leaders after-all. Anyone responding in the way they have to a schoolyard taunt is as immature as the individual making the schoolyard taunt to begin with. (Remember "sticks n' stones" and similar? An early schooling lesson that usually required a high grade PASS before entry to adulthood.)

Australia as a whole should expect more professionalism from politicians! Stop wasting time, money and Australia's opportunity to be better than it is!