Family feud came to the ABC on Monday night - and, oh brother, it was quite a climax to an extra awkward day for a bumptious Nationals senator from Bendigo making her debut on Q&A.

If she plays her cards right, The Adventures of Bridget McKenzie could prove as big a satirical hit as those of her movie namesake from the 1970s. She just needs a few more days like this one, which, by the time it ended in the late hours on Q&A, could only be described as a total Barry Crocker.

A shocker it was, and Barry McKenzie - whose original film adventures ended when he embarrassed his family by exposing himself on national television - would surely have sympathised with her plight. It began in the afternoon with some fumbling on the floor of the Senate, and wrapped up on the ABC with some bumbling on guns and some grumbling on gays - the latter triggered by a video question to the panel from none other than McKenzie's own brother.

Yes, just when we thought we'd seen it all on the Monday night autopsy of the national mood, along it comes with a revival of the old Jerry Springer method of conflict counselling. It was much more civilised than the Springer slugfests of old, of course, but the idea was the same: Alastair McKenzie, who is gay, beamed in on video with a question designed with ruthless reasonableness to force his older sister to declare him a second-class citizen in front of a national television audience.