The Heffalump and The Weird New Kid

You will have heard, I'm sure, about a bit of Stoushing(TM) that went on in Canberra the other day, between bad, mad Bill Heffernan and the slightly weird new kid in school, Barnaby Joyce.

We're not yet sure whether Joyce is the kid who come in waving his proverbial (if Ween songs count as proverbs, which I don't suppose they do. Never mind...) in the wind threatening to beat everyone up and does so, or whether he is the kid who does the above but as soon as someone muscles up to him he turns into a sooky mess looking for the Principal. Either way, he's definitely The Weird New Kid, who may or may not drink milk through his nose in the Staff Diner (I have no evidence that he does, but as I don't spend all day in The Trough watching for him I can't honestly and definitively rule it out).

We may have found out a little bit about how tough he is the other day, when as Matt Price told us the Heffalump described his "wet dream" to the Joint Party Room (the Coalition parties' version of Caucus) of a Coalition Senator ratting out the Government and blocking the Government's agenda on IR and other bills, leading to the fracturing of the Government and their eventual loss to the ALP.

Following this, the Weird Kid reportedly came storming up to the Heffalump and had a pretty serious go at him. It was described as being close to violence. Now this was denied by the PM, but Mark Vaile (new deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Nationals) made other comments about bloody noses in big families that indicate to me that the PM's trying to keep a lid on his Coalition's raging little pot of discontent.

The SMH also ran a series of photos of the Weird Kid looking funny in the Senate chamber too which, while amusing, are really nothing more than evidence that there was a photographer with nothing better to do on Tuesday. All Members and Senators will have moments where they look stupid to a greater or lesser degree- Wilson Tuckey as an example looks stupid even when he's at his best, but there's an underlying reason for that...

Back to Heff and Weirdo though, I reckon that as long as they're gonna Stoush (TM), I say bring it on. It's going to make the Senate just that little bit more interesting this term. I can't wait for someone to take The Black Rod (the that gives the symbolic authority of the Crown to conduct its business) and start swinging it around like a weapon, but I might be waiting for a while.

Until that time though- Stoush (TM) on Heffalump! Stoush (TM) on Weird Kid!