A fiery Question Time in the House of Representatives dissolved into farce on Wednesday as two Labor MPs were ejected for bringing unicorn toys into the chamber to mock treasurer Scott Morrison.
Let's back up a bit. Morrison was on a media blitz last week, delivering an address to the National Press Club and giving interviews all over radio and TV to talk up the government's negative gearing and tax plans. Despite all his work, much of the attention was focused on just one line that he repeated a few times.
"They are selling a unicorn to the Australian people -- higher taxes for higher spending," Morrison said of Labor's announced tax plans.
In a later interview, he said "“I’m realistically optimistic, but at the same time the environment for the budget is difficult, and I’m not going to be a Treasurer who tries to sell the public a unicorn on this thing."
Labor's Andrew Leigh sarcastically said he "applauds Morrison's strong anti-unicorn-trafficking stance".
On Wednesday, quite a few days after the unicorn comments first surfaced, Labor MPs Tim Watts and Pat Conroy came to Question Time, and they were prepared. When Morrison approached the dispatch box, they pulled out a few props of their own.
Watts and Conroy placed the toys -- Conroy a large pink stuffed model, Watts with a smaller plastic one -- on their desks quietly, with laughter from the Labor side drawing the attention of the Speaker of the House, who promptly ejected the pair from the house.
While the video cameras in the chamber did not capture the offending toys, Watts later Tweeted a close-up of the unicorn that saw him given an early mark from the chamber.
And just as a bonus extra, here's an excellent Photoshop job of Morrison.