Whether it reflects on the personalities involved or sheer weight of numbers, National and Labour have been jointly named as Parliament's most abusive parties in 2010 by self-appointed standards monitor Green MP Catherine Delahunty.
This year Ms Delahunty has regularly tweeted her "Housewatch" on the nastier utterances by MPs in
the debating chamber.
After reviewing her "completely partisan" tweets Ms Delahunty used her adjournment speech in the House this year to identify the worst offenders.
She declared National and Labour - specifically their front benches - as "the outstanding contributors to the level of personal abuse".
There had been some stand-out efforts from the back benches, with National's Paul Quinn a notoriously frequent and extremely loud interjector who Ms Delahunty yesterday said "behaves like he's at a rugby match".
However while Mr Quinn often tends to rely on sheer volume, Attorney-General Chris Finlayson matched him in abusive effect "with words of more syllables".
Mr Finlayson possessed "one of the most vitriolic approaches of any of the MPs".
"Even though he's very erudite and well educated he loses his rag and gets abusive."
Ms Delahunty told Parliament that Act was shaping up as a serious contender for the most abusive party this year, "but when David Garrett left, their ranking collapsed into a courteous policy focus - apart from the occasional groan from Sir Roger Douglas when goaded beyond bearing by commie collectivist planet-loving speeches by people like me".
Ms Delahunty believed the amount of abuse MPs heaped on each other in the House in 2010 was on a par with previous years but Housewatch may have had some small effect in reducing the "general atmosphere of hysteria and negativity".
"I've noticed that anyone that sits anywhere near me has got a little bit more restrained."
She'd also had positive feedback from the public who were often appalled by MPs' behaviour which made them "look like a joke" and wouldn't let their children watch Parliament on television.
Meanwhile, Speaker Lockwood Smith and his deputies have had to add a number of phrases to the list of "unparliamentary language" that must not be used in the House.
That includes the term "sewer rat" used by Environment Minister Nick Smith and "angry smurf" by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett both to describe Labour's chief mudslinger Pete Hodgson.
The standing prohibition against using nicknames in the House was breached when Tau Henare referred to Labour's George Hawkins as "Mr Wobblyman" and Clayton Cosgrove likened National's John Hayes to grotesque comedy character Sir Les Patterson.
Mr Hayes was no saint himself, and was obliged to withdraw and apologise to the male co-leader of the Greens after calling him "Dr No Man".
CAPTURED ON HOUSEWATCH
* Finance Minister Bill English's crack about David Cunliffe "always looking in the mirror".
* National MP John Hayes referring to the Greens' expat Australian co-leader Russel Norman as "Skippy No Brain".
* Attorney-General Chris Finlayson describing a Trevor Mallard comment as a "psychotic outburst episode" and Jim Anderton as "in his dotage".
* Prime Minister John Key referring to "Phil Goff and his bunch of muppets".
* National's Paul Quinn calling Pete Hodgson "a grubby and dirty old man".
John Key referred to 'Phil Goff (pictured) and his bunch of muppets'. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Whether it reflects on the personalities involved or sheer weight of numbers, National and Labour have been jointly named as Parliament's most abusive parties in 2010 by self-appointed standards monitor Green MP Catherine Delahunty.
This year Ms Delahunty has regularly tweeted her "Housewatch" on the nastier utterances by MPs in
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