Hush now, dear Crikey subscriber. We’re not going to mention that ghastly man from Queensland today. An exchange from Friday featuring another Senator tells you all you need to know about the Howard Government, its approach and current circumstances.

Mitch Fifield is a decent enough chap, but as a product of a selective breeding experiment carried out in the Treasurer’s office and installed in the Senate when Richard Alston wandered off to his lucrative new job in London he’s also the perfect example of the current breed of Liberal parliamentarians.

Look at this exchange with Clerk of the Senate Harry Evans over government advertising on Friday:

Fifield: Clerk, it comes to my mind, if you don’t like the laws passed by the Parliament, you know, stiff cheese is a phrase that tends to come to mind.

Evans: That is an extremely silly statement… What do you keep an adviser for? You keep an adviser to give you frank advice. And if the adviser thinks you’ve done something wrong, you’ve made a mistake, you’ve enacted something which is unwise… then you would expect an adviser to tell you very frankly.

Point taken, Harry. “When I say jump, I expect you to say how high” might be a good punch line, but it doesn’t do much for open government and public administration.