The Minister responsible for the government's latest embarrassing parliamentary bungle says the Opposition is playing adolescent games.
Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer admits there was a "procedural mistake" in the House on Wednesday night when the government accidentally endorsed a bill which included the Opposition's call for it to explain its failures on multinational tax avoidance.
"Labor has continued to play in this Parliament a lot of adolescent games. There was a procedural mistake last night but it had no impact on the passing of the Bill and it’s very, very clear that Labor wants to focus on game playing rather than focusing on their record and on a positive message," Ms O'Dwyer told reporters Thursday morning.
She was asked how she apparently forgot to vote against the amendment to international tax legislation, which called on the government to "explain why it has failed to close tax loopholes and increase transparency in Australia" in parliament on Wednesday.
"I think it’s incumbent on all MPs in parliament to be very, very conscious of all of the procedures," Ms O'Dwyer said.
Government colleagues backed her in playing down the incident, including Queensland Senator James McGrath.
"There's a craze here in Australia at the moment for people to go and dress up as clowns and go and find crazy clowns - come down to Canberra ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to go too far, you just have to look into the Labor caucus and it is full of clowns."
But the Manager of Opposition Business, Tony Burke, said this morning it goes to a wider matter.
"This is something that has never happened before in the history of federation, never," he told reporters in Canberra.
"You have extraordinary incompetence from this government. If their defence is they weren't paying attention, what sort of parliament have we got?"
Last night Mr Burke and the mover of the amendment, Andrew Leigh, watched the bill go through with incredulity that the government did not pick it up.
As soon as it passed, Ms O'Dwyer left the House.
"I'd like to very much thank the minister as she leaves the chamber and voting for my second reading amendment. It's rare that one moves a second reading amendment in this place that is supported by the government but to have the house carry the second reading amendment was indeed a pleasing day for the Opposition," Dr Leigh, the MP for Fenner told Parliament.
So rare in fact, Mr Burke said it was the first time in the history of Federation.
"There has never been a more chaotic government, there has never been a more chaotic parliament and there has never been a leader of the house that has had to endure humiliation from his colleagues on such a regular basis," Mr Burke told Parliament.
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After realising the mistake, Speaker Tony Smith recalled members to deal with it.
Having made its point, Labor then cooperated to allow the removal of the amendment from the bill.
Leader of the House Christopher Pyne described it as an inadvertent human error caused by a series of events.
"It's something I would have done when I was manager of opposition business," he said.
"We're really arguing the toss over something that's not very important, we all support the bill."
Mr Pyne was severely embarrassed last month when the Coalition government also made history for the wrong reasons.
It was the first government since the 1960s to lose a series of votes on the floor after several MPs left work early, a mistake Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he "excoriated" his colleagues for.
