IT’S NOT unusual for politics to feature a lot of hot air, but when the size of South Coast MP Shelley Hancock’s backside came up in a parliamentary debate last week, Kiama MP Matt Brown found himself right in the thick of it.

The stench developed in a speech from Mr Brown on Tuesday about recent Princes Highway upgrades, after Ms Hancock challenged the Government about significant funding blowouts.

When she called for him to explain where the extra money had gone, Mr Brown accused her of putting “her big but in the debate”.

Hansard transcripts of the incident record the word as ‘but’ instead of ‘butt’, but Ms Hancock seemed to understand Mr Brown’s meaning nevertheless.

“I ask the member to withdraw that remark,” she said. “It is highly offensive, and it’s not that big!”

After Mr Brown refused to withdraw his comment, Ms Hancock and her fellow MPs again asked him to retract what they described as a “sexist remark”.

He still refused, describing their protests as a waste of time.

Talking about the incident later, Ms Hancock claimed the comments were a way of steering the discussion away from the funding issues she had raised.

“He will use anything to distract the public from the fact he went way overbudget on the recent Illawarra project while failing to fund other necessary upgrades,” Ms Hancock said.

“He couldn’t deliver a decent right of reply so he had to be silly.”

Federal Member for Gilmore, Joanna Gash, also weighed into the debate later in the week, saying there was no place for personal comments in parliament.

“It’s a big no-no as far as I’m concerned,” she said. “I find it usually comes up when these guys are on the back foot, but they need to show some self-control by not resorting to personal attacks.”

But while Mr Brown’s arguably indelicate double entendre was publicly condemned, he maintained there was “nothing personal” about his comment, even if it sounded below the belt.

“She’s just got her buts confused,” he said when pressed on the incident.