The practice of bringing fluffy toy animals into the parliamentary chamber is almost at plague proportions.

Last week the LNP's Jarrod Bleijie stood to ask a question in the Queensland Parliament with a stuffed white rat on his shoulder. Ostensibly he was asking a question of the Minister for Police about his reported use of a firearm for rodent control purposes. The real target of course, was the Member for Cairns, Rob Pyne, who had recently resigned from the ALP. No words needed to be said. Bleijie's prop was enough.

Jarrod Bleijie sports a rat in Queensland Parliament question time. Credit:Shane Doherty/Nine News

It was left to Pyne's former ALP comrades to use the word "rat" in social media posts.

Bleijie's question began facetiously, "In this 'Adopt a Rescued Guinea Pig' month I refer to the Minister for Police's statement as a minister regarding his rat-shooting rampage…"