Tim Mathieson has much more to fear today than the fickle finger of his GP. His ribald remark about prostate cancer testing to a gathering of cricketers has certainly earned the prime ministerial consort an extended sojourn in his man's shed.

Mathieson's commendable concern for the reproductive health of the visiting West Indian team went awry on Monday night when he counselled that digital examinations were the only sure-fire way to get a correct reading on the state of the prostate. ''So make sure you go and do that, and perhaps look for a small female Asian doctor is probably the best way,'' he rashly added.

This went down a treat with the lads at The Lodge, judging by the chorus of guffawing, but it showed a remarkable insensitivity to the sensibilities of Mathieson's housemate - as the look on Julia Gillard's face testified the moment the words were out.

As well as raising a small veil on Mathieson's private predilections, we now know - thanks to the inevitable barrage of commentary on breakfast television and talkback radio - that the remarks were inappropriate, undiplomatic and, yes, sexist, racist and probably ageist. Maybe even misogynistic, too.