Props -- stunts, for the use of -- are in the news. In Parliament the Speaker Harry Jenkins is in a bit of a quandary. It's alright for the Prime Minister, in the House of Reps, to hold up an enlarged photo of building projects under "the Australian Government’s Nation-Building for Recovery Plan." However, it’s not acceptable when the burly Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey unfurls a three metre series of five panels saying rude things about our PM.

The large photos waved around by Rudd are designed to embarrass. They show projects in the electorates of Opposition MPs who are delighted they are being built, but who voted against the money to build them. Malcolm Turnbull himself turned up at a ceremony in his Wentworth electorate marking the beginning of one of these projects. On Thursday, Rudd was at it again with large photos (designated in parliamentspeak as "props".)