What a way to kick-start another Parliamentary sitting week.

Just when you think US politics has definitively taken out the crown when it comes to being utterly broken and screwed up… along come a few Australian politicians to remind us all how bad we have it.

Over the weekend audio emerged of Donald Trump saying some incredibly sexist things and boasting about sexual assault. “I just start kissing them,” Trump said in the recordings. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

If your headline on this is anything less than "Trump caught on tape discussing how to sexually assault women," you're doing it wrong — Kate Sheppard (@kate_sheppard) October 7, 2016

The story has become one of the biggest news events of the year and pundits in the US are describing it as a turning point in the Presidential election. So you’d think it would be pretty easy for Australian politicians to condemn the remarks as outrageous, right?

Enter Pauline Hanson and Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Here’s what Hanson said this morning, in response to Trump’s comments: “I don’t support what he said, and I think it’s vulgar and disgusting.” Sounds good so far… but there’s always a “but”. “But it was not said publicly, it was said behind the scenes in a tape recording… and that was 10 years ago,” Hanson said.

“I do believe that the people of America are fed up with the major political parties,” Hanson said, before talking about Trump’s outsider appeal and wondering whether voters would look past his comments and still vote for him.

Derryn Hinch, who happened to be walking past Hanson as she was being interviewed, jumped in and said, “To manage to support Donald Trump in any manner or form is absolutely disgraceful. That you as a woman can even make any justification for what he just said and done is just disgraceful.”

Strangely enough, Barnaby Joyce had a similar line to Hanson’s when he was interviewed on ABC radio this morning. When asked whether Trump was now “unelectable”, Joyce responded with “Well, he is certainly making life difficult for himself, isn’t he?”

After declaring the comments were “unacceptable”, Joyce then added “He did say it 10 years ago.” He then appeared to blame the Democrats for “digging up rubbish” from the past.

Let’s get a few things clear. The fact that Trump’s comments were made 10 years ago is irrelevant. The fact that they were unknowingly recorded is also irrelevant. The fact that the comments could have been “dug up” by the Democrats is also irrelevant. Why was it so hard for Joyce and Hanson to just say they were terrible comments? Why did they both need to add in a “but” and try and find some obscure way to deflect?

It might be easy to write-off Hanson as a fringe politician but Joyce is the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. It’s kind of extraordinary he brought up the fact that the comments were made 10 years ago… as though that means anything?

What a way to kick-start another Parliamentary sitting week.