"JUST because there are more journalists ... don't show off," Stephen Conroy shouted across the Senate during question time on Monday.
There were indeed more journalists - nine rather than the usual one.
That's because this week the upper house, the unrepresentative swill of Paul Keating's cruel and not entirely accurate jibe, is the only parliamentary show in town.
And so the spotlight fell on political lions like the two Senate major party leaders, Chris Evans and Eric Abetz.
It would be nice to report they rose to the occasion.
But Evans' main contribution was to woodenly read a prepared answer about the royal commission into child abuse.
Abetz confined himself to interjections, which earned him a sharp "doesn't know what he's talking about ... doesn't understand statistics" from Penny Wong.
On the other hand, it was a little more civilised than the house of the people, though that's coming off a very low base. And it may just be that a chamber of 76, all else equal, will only make half as much noise as one of 150.
Conroy and George Brandis gamely tried to do the decibel work of many, exchanging a series of long and loud pleasantries across the chamber that drowned out Joe Ludwig, one of several ministers who had to field questions about their own portfolios as well as those held by lower house ministers.
The Senate gives each questioner two supplementary questions, thus allowing some degree of cross examination.
Alas, that doesn't always lead to more informative answers.
Ludwig, for example, was as blatant as anyone in the House of Representatives when it came to ducking and weaving - in his case about the second Kyoto commitment period.
His inquisitor, Simon Birmingham, appealed in vain for a straight answer.
And Conroy was as triumphalist as any Reps minister when boasting about the national broadband network roll-out.
Unlike the lower house, there was no theme, with every question different. The opposition asked about childcare costs, the disappearing mining tax, Kyoto and homelessness. The Greens wanted to know about the endangered Tasmanian Tarkine and the live cattle trade.
Also unlike the Reps, there was no obsession with Tony Abbott. In fact, the opposition leader wasn't mentioned.
The government took the odd swipe at their opponent, with Kim Carr sneering that its latest childcare policy was to have an inquiry to see if it needed a new policy.
But there was none of the nasty personal stuff.
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