Mud was slung, and some stuck to Santo Santoro this week, while Matt Birney pondered the state of his curtains and a Senate committee stymied plans for an Access Card. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister went to Afghanistan - which was possibly a safer place.
"If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud." - American Graphic Designer Mary Engelbreit.
Or a lot, as it would appear.
If voters were praying for a break in the political climate as the Brian Burke-Kevin Rudd dust storm settled over Canberra, they were sadly mistaken this week.
Federal Mud-Slinging
As unpalatable as it is, mud slinging dominated the federal political scene, with both parties poring over medical archives, email lists, dinner party invitations and share registries in the hope of scoring political points against their opponents.
As reported in last week's Arch, Shadow Attorney-General Kelvin Thomson resigned from opposition front-benches after it was revealed that he provided a reference for convicted drug trafficker Tony Mokbel in 2000, saying he was fit to hold a liquor licence.
Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said attestations to someone's character were too important for someone to sign a piece of paper that had been placed in front of them, and that Mr Thomson should have checked more thoroughly.
This was followed on Tuesday with media and government speculation on the accuracy of Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd's account of the after-effects of his father's death in 1968, when Mr Rudd was 11.
Mr Rudd has often related an anecdote of his family being evicted from the home they occupied while his father was a sharefarmer in rural Queensland.
But the family of the property owner, now deceased, protested the allegations, saying their father had acted with more compassion than Mr Rudd suggested.
Health Minister Tony Abbott labelled Mr Rudd's story "too self-serving to be true", and maintained the attack yesterday, saying the government had a right to scrutinise the man who was seeking to lead the nation.
Two days later, Prime Minister John Howard was the subject of mud-slinging himself, with shadow Treasurer Wayne Swan accusing him of having double standards after revelations that he attended a 2004 fundraiser with Queensland pornographer Scott Phillips, who is currently in jail after pleading guilty to a range of violent crimes.
Mr Phillips was a last-minute addition, and has not been on the initial guest list provided to the Prime Minister's office for the Brisbane lunch.
Mr Costello said the Prime Minister was forthright about all his meetings, and has people checked in advance.
"It is completely different to flying into Western Australia as the guest of honour of Brian Burke and then pretending afterwards you didn't know he was going to be there," he said.
Senator Santoro sacks self over share scandal
But the mud-sling of the week, and the one that stuck, was against Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro, who reports indicate stood down after checks had revealed he had neglected to report between 50 and 60 share holdings over 15 or 16 months, after a furore over a $6,000 shareholding he bought in 2005 dominated much of the week's politics.
The Senator said the share holdings did not cause a conflict of interest with his portfolio.
One month after he bought the $6,000 stake in Cbio, an unlisted Brisbane biotech which was developing an Arthritis treatment, he became Minister for Ageing, but failed to declare his financial interest in the company to either Cabinet or the Parliament, as all Ministers are required to do, until 10 months later.
Senator Santoro, who claimed his failure to declare the shares was "an honest mistake", sold the shares in October 2006, for $6,000, and donated the money to the Family Council of Queensland, Inc, which he told reporters this week was a charity.
The President of FCQ, Alan Baker, told ABC Radio this week that the organisation was "a non-profit, non-party political organisation - an association of pro-family organisations". In other words, a lobby group.
It later transpired that Mr Baker was the person who sold Senator Santoro the share stake in the first place.
Senator Santoro told reporters today he never intended to be dishonest and deeply regretted the impact the issue had had on the government in recent days.
"None of these investments involves either impropriety or a conflict of interest and there was never any dishonest intention on my part," he said.
The Prime Minister, who is currently in the Middle East, released a statement which said the Senator had no option but to resign.
"While common sense needs to be applied to issues of ministerial conduct including the capacity to accept inadvertent error, circumstances such as those now outlined by him are unacceptable," Mr Howard said.
Howard visits Japan, Afghanistan
Happily, it wasn't all mudslinging this week, as Mr Howard signed a historic security agreement with his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe.
Under the agreement, Japan and Australia will strengthen defence cooperation, as well as working closely on border security, counter-terrorism and peacekeeping and law enforcement.
The Prime Minister flew from there to Afghanistan, for meetings with President Hamid Karzai.
It is the second time since 2005 that Mr Howard had visited the country to meet Australian troops.
Ellison given red card, insists it's yellow
Meanwhile, new Human Services Minister Chris Ellison has delayed the introduction of laws for its new Access Card after a Senate Committee found it was likely to become in effect an identity card, despite measures aimed at limiting its use.
The card is meant to replace the Medicare Card and other benefits cards, and has explicitly ruled out its use as a national ID card.
However, the standing committee on finance and administration said it was unable to fully assess the card because legislation covering its privacy and security safeguards had not yet been introduced.
It recommended the legislation be rewritten to include the privacy provisions, which the government had planned to introduce down the track.
Opposition human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said what was now proposed was totally unacceptable.
"It is a national ID card by stealth... it will cost more than its saves and so many questions as yet unanswered," she said.
Nonetheless, Senator Ellison told media today he wants the card to be rolled out by 2008.
"This is certainly not the end of the access card and people are seriously mistaken if they think that is."
Candle not Birneyd at both ends
In State Politics, Liberal leadership aspirant Matt Birney raised a few eyebrows when he declared on Thursday that he would introduce a private members bill to parliament to cut the last two months off daylight saving, because of complaints February was too hot and the mornings were too dark in March.
Mr Birney, who along with former minister John D'Orazio was responsible for introducing the bill to Parliament last year, had revised his earlier plan to exclude January as well after a backlash.
"As the original mover of the bill, I have an obligation to ensure that the final model that gets voted on is a model that most people in WA can live with if it's successful," he said.
Mr Birney said people who wanted daylight saving scrapped altogether "would be grateful for small mercies".
WA Nationals leader Brendan Grylls said there was extensive disquiet in the community over the issue.
"The 37,000 signatures that we've got on our petition are saying we want to be able to vote on daylight saving," he said.
"We don't want to rearrange it, we don't want it at different times, we just don't like it."
"What you're seeing from Matt Birney is a recognition that this is dividing the community"
Paul Omodei, who deposed Mr Birney as Liberal leader last March, told The West Australian changing the length of daylight saving was unlikely to make any difference to whether people supported it or not.
The Liberals will back the Nationals push for the referendum to be brought forward to October.
Treasurer Eric Ripper said he did not support Mr Birney's plan.
Mr Ripper said it would increase the months WA was out of time with the rest of the country and therefore undermine the economic benefits of daylight saving.
"It is clearly too early to begin meddling with the model," Mr Ripper said.
"The Parliament decided on a three-year trial for a good reason - we do need more than one summer to make a proper assessment."
Mr Ripper said the Liberal Party was worried about losing country seats at the next election and Mr Birney's proposal reflected instability within the party.
More arrows out for Archer
Mr Ripper should know all about instability, with revelations this week that Labor backbencher and de facto wife of union leader Kevin Reynolds, Shelley Archer, has a spent criminal conviction for receiving a single-parent pension while working as a middle-ranking public servant meant.
Opposition Leader Paul Omodei said Ms Archer's position as a member of parliament was untenable.
"The latest revelations with Shelley Archer are another reason for Alan Carpenter to demand her expulsion from the ALP," he told reporters.
But the Premier said he did not think it was possible to expel Ms Archer from the party on the grounds of her spent conviction.
"I absolutely condemn the behaviour that resulted in those convictions ... but it is actually unlawful in Western Australia for an employer to discriminate against a person on the basis of a spent conviction," Mr Carpenter told reporters.
"I have already stripped Shelley Archer of all the positions she held, parliamentary committees and as chair of my taskforce into the effects of the changes to Community Development Employment Program.
"The only other course of action would be to have her expelled from the Labor Party and to expel someone from the Labor Party on the basis of a spent conviction dating back 15 years, I don't think would be possible."
The Final Word.
In a week where former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett compared Western Australia to North Korea and Mr Carpenter compared him to a marionette fed to a shark in a multi-million marionette movie, the final word must go to federal Labor backbencher Daryl Melham.
Mr Melham, the member for Banks in New South Wales, told AAP this week about his discovery that the Federal Government had spent almost $90,000, excluding security costs, on accommodating Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander and Crown Princess Maxima on a six-day visit to Australia.
While Mr Melham said he did not think the costs were excessive, he nonetheless questioned the need for taxpayers to fund a visit for the royals of a country with few direct links to Australia.
"I can see the connection we have with the British royals - old Lizzie is still our head of state," Mr Melham said.
"But the connection (with the Dutch) is not such that it justifies taxpayers footing the bill.
"How many other royals are on the public tit?"
For its part, Arch recognises a Federal government must welcome keep diplomatic visitors in the style to which they have become accustomed. That said, there may not be too many more royal visitors if MPs keep talking like Mr Melham.