Ms Ratnam called a point of order, telling House President Bruce Atkinson she believed she had been called a pig by her Liberal opponent and Ms Peulich. Greens leader Samantha Ratnam. Credit:Darrian Traynor Ms Peulich said in a statement that Ms Ratnam used her members' statement in Parliament to attack Senator Jane Hume for comments she made on ABC program Q&A on the topic of women in politics.

"Ms Ratnam who professes to be an advocate for more women in politics used this as a cheap opportunity to launch a nasty and personal attack on Senator Jane Hume and all female Liberal MPs. "I was incensed at this blatant of display of hypocrisy by Ms Ratnam and the Greens but did withdraw an intemperate remark I made and hope Ms Ratnam will also apologise for her offensive and misogynist comments."

A Greens spokesman said there were no plans for the party to take the matter further. Poor Parliamentary behaviour has been in the spotlight this year with Labor lower house MP Hong Lim in trouble in March for giving a one-fingered salute across the chamber at three Liberal women. He was later accused of aggressively confronting one of the women in the Parliament building. There was also an alleged physical altercation in the parliamentary dining room in February between two senior Labor figures in which a butter knife was reportedly brandished by one of the MPs.

Thursday's outbursts, which also saw Liberal backbenchers Bernie Finn and Josh Morris ejected from the chamber for heckling Ms Ratnam, was prompted by the Greens leader giving some advice to the Coalition on its "women problem". Illustration: Matt Golding "It is clear that members of the Liberal Party have little if any understanding of the privilege and advantage that helped install them and their friends into their powerful positions," Ms Ratnam said. "The Liberal party should spend a bit more time learning about their privilege - and in the meantime, we will keep working to ensure that all women can feel like they have an equal place in this place and we achieve gender equality."