Your finger, you fool!

Senator Julian McGauran, the Nationals' Whip in the Senate made an allegedly obscene gesture for which he was reprimanded by the PM and by the Senate yesterday.

As you can see from the image that the SMH published, the Senator is raising his index finger, but when you watch the footage he's making a clear "up yours" kind of gesture, but with the wrong finger.

Makes me wonder- is he attempting to be prudent and avoid sanction (in which case he clearly failed) or is he simply a numbskull.

Answer: a little from column A, a little from column B.

He made the gesture as the Government exercised its majority for the first time against united opposition, after enduring a series of heckles for appearing to lose count after 10. Apparently amongst the insults called out was somebody encouraging him to take his shoes off if he needed to.

If you can't count past ten, and you can't work out what's going to be considered acceptable behaviour in the Senate, then you're a fool.