![\"Labor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/ecb6e615-db72-4884-9c01-ca1342fcffad.png\")
Labor Senator Glenn Sterle and Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie were caught in a heated moment. (YouTube)<\/p>\nLabor MP Glenn Sterle and Nationals counterpart Bridget McKenzie have been caught in a heated moment of name-calling that briefly derailed a Senate committee.<\/p>\n
The pair were debating the federal government’s actions on the trucking industry and tax during a hearing \ufeffon rural and regional affairs and transport today.<\/p>\n
\ufeffSterle, the chair of the hearing, said he would argue with McKenzie on taxes anywhere and threatened to metaphorically “cut” her up.<\/p>\n
Labor Senator Glenn Sterle and Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie were caught in a heated moment. (YouTube)<\/p>\n
“Happy to have that debate \ufeffwith you on any forum… anywhere in Australia because I’ll cut you up,” Sterle said.<\/p>\n
“You’ll cut me up?” McKenzie replied.<\/p>\n
“\ufeffMetaphorically, \ufeffyes, I’ll carve you up is what I should say,” Sterle clarified after a silent moment.<\/p>\n
“C\ufeffheers. I’ll be writing to (Finance Minister Katy Gallagher) and (Foreign Minister Penny Wong) on that one,” McKenzie replied.<\/p>\n
The pair \ufeffcontinued arguing and Sterle became visibly agitated, asking the minister being questioned to swap seats so he could “educate the ignoramus from the other side”.<\/p>\n
“Ignoramus, going to carve me up, going to cut me up, anything else?” McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
“What a charmer. Ladies, I hope you’re listening.”<\/p>\n
Sterle continued to hit out at McKenzie, including over a report about the National senator’s use of taxpayer-funded travel expenses.<\/p>\n
According to The Age, McKenzie billed taxpayers $853.52 for a four-day trip to Tasmania in February 2023, where she also attended her son’s wedding.<\/p>\n
The room was quiet as Sterle and McKenzie continued to go back and forth for over two minutes until someone suggested the hearing be briefly suspended. \ufeff<\/p>\n
Returning to the hearing, Sterle said he regretted using those “choice words”.<\/p>\n
“As you can see, that was the worst of the worst being on display here,” he said.<\/p>\n
“\ufeffAs frustrations boil over, language is used that shouldn’t be used. I regret using some of my choice words, I take that back but I’m very happy to defend what this government has done with sham contracting with the transport industry.<\/p>\n
“I will not use that language again, Senator McKenzie, \ufeffbut if you wish to debate me, the offer is still there.”<\/p>\n
“Respectfully, I will take that up,” McKenzie replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labor MP Glenn Sterle and Nationals counterpart Bridget McKenzie have been caught in a heated moment of name-calling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-693369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}