Jenna Price | Parliament House incident latest in long list of poor conduct

Dick said on Wednesday: "The Prime Minister will refer to members by their correct titles and will continue his answer."

It's been a big week for exposing bad behaviour in Parliament, following a big few years of exposing poor behaviour in Parliament (thanks Brittany Higgins and all who sail with her). Name-calling is childish (but sometimes irresistible).

But there was much more this week which reveals the excellent efforts of retiring Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins to improve the culture at Parliament House have a long way to go.

On Tuesday evening, a group of Coalition members rushed to exit the lower house chamber after a division was called.

What difference their absence would have made, it's impossible to say, seeing as how the Coalition is at its lowest influence in decades.

But they decided it was so important they weren't there, they were prepared to ignore the rules which have been in place for yonks. I guess some of them are familiar with ignoring the conventions.

In their bid to escape, they ignored the safety of the people who work to uphold security and safety in the House and they injured a female parliamentary staff member.

Now apparently she doesn't want a fuss to be made but the staffer is off work and no word from anyone about her return to her job or whether she can be redeployed away from buffoons.

A spokesperson for the Information Management Office says the Department of the House of Representatives "is committed to the safety of its employees".

One eyewitness said: "The staffer was closing the door and she got caught in the melee as people were shoving their way out of the door. It was a little bit frenzied.

"Those doors are quite heavy and as the staffer was closing the door, she was in the middle of it. She was collateral damage."

We ordinary folk can't see the video of the incident. There are cameras everywhere in the house but conventions say the public can only see footage from the live camera, trained on whoever is speaking.

But Milton Dick, as speaker, may access whatever he needs and after reviewing the footage, demanded an apology from the Slam the Door on Your Way Out Coalition Seven.

Who were the STDOYWO Seven?

Opposition frontbenchers Dan Tehan, Angus Taylor, Andrew Hastie and Ted O'Brien, then backbenchers Wide Bay MP Llew O'Brien, Nicholls MP Sam Birrell and Flinders MP Zoe McKenzie.

I would have thought though that Andrew Hastie, a former member of the Australian Army, would know how to follow the chain of command. And apologies, I can't locate Ted O'Brien in my mind at all. Yes they did apologise at Dick's demand but not all expressed sympathy for the victim.

Strangely on Wednesday morning, Dutton was back at it, demanding courtesy from the Prime Minister.

On Thursday, the man who purports to know what courtesy is refused to turn up as legislation was introduced for the constitutional alteration for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, a handful of weeks after saying he was wrong to walk out on Sorry.

A significant number of other Coalition frontbenchers were not present for the bill's introduction. Nationals leader David Littleproud, Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack and Karen Andrews were there but did not join the standing ovation.

Good on opposition Indigenous Australians spokesman and shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser for having the conviction, with others, to stay and listen. You don't have to applaud. You just have to be there.

As researchers Deirdre McKeown and Michael Sloane wrote last year: "Unlike Australian state and territory parliaments and other Westminster parliaments in Canada and the UK, MPs and political staff working in the Australian Federal Parliament are subject to very few codes of conduct."

That's all about to change. In February this year, both the House and the Senate endorsed the introduction of a code of conduct.

Just last week, independent Zali Steggall, who has been a constant campaigner for a code, welcomed the code and said: "We need to set a standard of behaviour that can be the gold standard around the country."

Both Steggall and Helen Haines, on behalf of the crossbench, asked the Speaker on Wednesday about what actions would be taken in relation to the seven.

Steggall asked if the actions should be referred to the parliamentary leadership taskforce and whether this kind of behaviour should be covered behind by the code.

She makes a good point. Should we have MMA-trained security guards alongside the attendants?

This code covers some things but it doesn't cover everything, more personal behaviour than integrity. I love Anne Aly's wish for the code to cover racism.

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Not everything which happens at Parliament House is as visibly egregious as sexual assault and workplace harassment but there appears to be little to promote civility and respect, to honour the machinery of democracy, to accept that part of that is to sit back and open your ears when others are standing up for their beliefs.

Is it as bad as sexual violence? Is it as bad as physical violence (which somehow has not been used as a term to describe what happened when the STDOYWO seven).

Is it as bad as refusing to even be in the room where it happens when the Voice legislation is being introduced?

Great the code of conduct is being adopted soonish but keep an eye on it. Let's not make harms compete for the privilege of being the most awful.