Matt Rees? Nathan Rees? Someone called Brown?

Lester - shouldn't you have your articles proof-read before publishing to ensure they at least make some sense...?

They get drunk, screw little girls / boys / goats (delete as necessary), fiddle their expenses, abuse their wives and secretaries (if not the same person), hire their own kids on the public payroll (being in Infants school and a Government researcher at the same time can be a bitch).

And that the GOOD ones.

At least he kept his shreddies on FFS!

And he's an Australian!!! He should have been made Minister of Culture.

naaaahhhhhh. extra votes, more like.

Paris: I wont even bother explaining.

better the guy who gets drunk and dances in his pants than the guys who take bribes to ask questions and then lie about it

slacking El Reg

at least a link please or we can't possibly believe that an Australian minister would do such a lewd thing . . . where is Sir Les Patterson when you need him ? eh?

Surely even lawyers and politicians are allowed to be human sometimes, so longs as it doesn't set a very bad example or bring the public office into disrepute. Having said that, I can't shift the mental image of Gordon B. climbing out of his pit at 5am and wandering to the bathroom in his grots, urghhh!

So the land of Oz is becoming another victim of cultural imperialism. In the past I admired Australians' ability to only take seriously what needed to be taken seriously and spend the rest of the time enjoying life. Instead they now appear to be climbing into the social straight jacket of political correctness that the rest of the Anglo-Saxon world has created for itself.

It is a sad day when you have to admit that Australians have become a bunch of Poms.

Straining at gnats and swallowing camels as usual. The naked human body is something we all have and need and use - and admire when packaged as art or a baby or shower mate. Partying ditto. Forcing people to wear clothes is unnatural and bizarre even. Let those who wish wear what they like, including undies, and the rest of us not. This kind of lunacy is as bad as deluding yourself that spelling equals literacy/communications skills, culture and intelligence.

It also leads to blindness to bigger issues like the climate, war, injustice, environmental destruction and the wanton crippling or extermination of people in industrial "accidents" or pollution (think Chernobyl or Union Carbide).

So put a dunce's hat on em and cart them around with bloody great placards reading "I'm a narrow-minded Puritan bigot and deserve every rotten egg and tomato you throw at me" - in the body God gave em.

(Paris cos she's a child of nature)

I mean, he tried to nude up at a party and couldn't even get that right!

"I subsequently put it to former minister Brown late last night that there are too many reports of you in your underwear for me to ignore."

I really, really love the Australians.

Perhaps he should get himself another brief!

He got fired for dancing drunk in his underwear? Rather than promoted?

Are you *sure* this is the same Australia as it used to be? Not some new and lesser-known one where they do things differently?

I'm on first name terms with Matt and, having spent a year in his electorate of Kiama (contemplating Seven Mile Beach from a three bedroom house for $250(AUD) a week) I was really surprised by this.

Mostly because Matt's a smart, reasonably attractive guy, who wields quite a lot of power. And his partner in this scandal, <a href="http://images.google.com/images?rls=en-us&q=noreen%20hay&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi">Noreen Hay</a> is the frequent answer when journos in the region ask each other over drinks "who is the most repulsive human being in the world?".

As he's a youngish bloke having just shot his stellar career to pieces with a bush-pig I've got money on fatal a leap into the Kiama blow-hole in the next couple of days.

But I hope I'm wrong about that.

Yeh he'd get my vote too.

@ John Griffiths: My eyes! My beautiful eyes!

Reminds me of when the former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser was found in the foyer of a dodgy Memphis hotel minus his pants, passport & any recollection of the night before. A man who truly exemplifies the Australia spirit.

Anyway, I'm wondering what Nathan Rees has against techno music?

Noreen Hay makes our Anne Widdecome look like a stunner.

"And he's an Australian!!! He should have been made Minister of Culture."

Had he been wearing Speedos or any other brand of budgie-smugglers and drunk on beer, then too right. However, he was in his underwear and drunk on wine - and that's just gauche. ^_^

Yes, we have become a bunch of puritanic, uptight wowsers down here in Australia and it is a bloody tragedy. It is pleasing to read the comments of people that can't see what all the fuss is about, a bloke getting drunk and making a tool of himself in front of his colleagues. I urge you well adjusted Brits to PLEASE move to Australia, to readjust the balance of puritan wowsers to normal people.

and John Della Bosca gets a promotion...

WTF is this country coming to?

Maybe if he abused some people and got his wife to threaten their jobs then maybe he would've gotten a promotion instead.

But seriously I would rather a fun-loving techno-dancing underwear-prancing minister any day compared to a bigoted alcoholic prat who thinks he's above the law.

I'll get my coat, the one that covers my hole filled underwear....