There is no greater gift to a politician than to kick an opponent while they are down, except perhaps one — the gift of pointing out a great clanging example of an opponent’s hypocrisy.

The ongoing saga of section 44 of the constitution, stalking through the halls of Canberra and picking off our represented officials one by one, slasher film style, has has brought about a wonderful confluence of those elements. Let’s check in with a few politicians and see what they had to say when their opponents were falling foul of our founding document, and what they have to say when it’s their side on the line.

James Paterson

Liberal Senator for Victoria and Crikey Sexiest Politician 2016 finalist James Paterson was unequivocal in the aftermath of the resignations of Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam, tweeting on July 18: “Amazed at suggestions we should allow foreign nationals to serve in the Australian Parliament because two Green MPs can’t manage basic admin”. So what has been said since it became clear that two Coalition MPs aren’t so hot on checking whether the forms they sign are actually correct?  He took to Twitter to refute claims from Labor’s Tony Burke that he had deleted the tweet pictured above. Apart from that, he’s done a doorstop repeating the discredited claim that Labor’s tax plan would raise taxes by $150 billion and talked about the Labor Party’s hypocrisy on the NBN. But no slating of his colleagues.

Steve Ciobo

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steve Ciobo took time out from forcing Chris Hemsworth into Instagram pics to rail at Sky’s Peter van Onselen about the “unforgivable” mistakes the Greens had made around citizenship:

“I mean, the situation where someone wouldn’t know they’re a dual citizen. I mean, this is one of the basics of any competent political party, to run through these issues. All of us know that it’s a constitutional requirement and, frankly, doesn’t matter which political party you’re in. If you haven’t done it, then it’s sloppy at the extreme.”

An admirable commitment to upholding our constitution, regardless of whether it’s politically convenient. But when Matt Canavan was ensnared in a similar issue, Ciobo was unequivocal. It was completely different when it was Matt Canavan. Ciobo has not mentioned what he think about Barnaby Joyce’s issues, but with this kind of consistency — he’s not one to flip flop more than a pair of thongs, like he said of Labor — perhaps we don’t need to ask.

Malcolm Turnbull

A backbencher can shoot his mouth off on any given subject, safe in the knowledge the absence of comment from him in the future might not be noticed. But our Prime Minister — a man of rare eloquence — has no such option, so one would assume he would choose his words very carefully when lining up a free kick such that presented to him by the Greens in July. This is what he went with on Channel Nine, back on July 19: 

“It is pretty amazing, isn’t it, that you’ve had two out of nine Greens senators who didn’t realise that they were citizens of another country. And it shows incredible sloppiness on their part. You know, when you nominate for parliament, there is actually a question. You’ve got to address that Section 44 question, you’ve got to tick the box and confirm that you’re not a citizen of another country. So, it is … it’s extraordinary negligence on their part.”

When his loyal deputy was similarly ensnared, he did a whiplash inducing U-turn, veering past “people make mistakes” and landing on predicting that the High Court would hold that Joyce was qualified to sit in Parliament.

Bill Shorten

“I think Australians will say ‘what is going on with the Green political party? Are they ready to be serious political operators? Are they up for the job?'” The opposition leader asked back in July.

While no one in the ALP has fallen foul of the section yet, could this possibly come back to haunt him?

Barnaby Joyce

If only his colleagues had listened to the man himself.  While Turnbull was delighting in their failures, Joyce was measured and philosophical in the aftermath of Greens citizenship issues on Sky News:

“You’ve got to be really careful when you start throwing stones when something was an honest oversight, because you bet your life the stone will come back and hit you.”

“With regards to Larissa Waters or Scott Ludlam, I’ve never thought for any of these people that they deliberately or maliciously went out and did something that was wrong,” Joyce said at the time.

“I think that they were caught by circumstance and this is another issue of precisely that. But the constitution is what the constitution is and it is written in black and white and it has to be complied with.