Australia's chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon will make a personal apology to Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop after making a meow noise as she spoke.
That was precisely the same conduct which Labor condemned when directed at Finance Minister Penny Wong by Liberal David Bushby during an estimates committee meeting
last month.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would make Mr Fitzgibbon apologise to Ms Bishop.
"This was clearly the wrong thing to do. I will be requiring him to apologise personally to the deputy leader of the opposition," she said.
"As a woman in this parliament, I say to all members of the Labor team and all members of the parliament generally conduct towards women in this parliament which would not occur towards men in this parliament is inappropriate and wrong and should not be done by any member."
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott thanked Ms Gillard.
"I rise simply to thank the prime minister for what was an extremely gracious statement after what was quite a taxing debate," he said.
Ms Bishop was in full flight condemning the prime minister over the carbon tax during debate on an opposition motion to censure the PM.
"And the reason we seek to censure this prime minister is because this government is trashing parliamentary democracy," she said, declaring Ms Gillard's credibility was at rock bottom.
As she spoke, an unmistakable "meow" sounded from the government benches.
Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer demanded Speaker Harry Jenkins review footage of parliament to identify the culprit after he said he did not hear who made the noise.
"It is very important that you look to the tapes to find out who made that catcall. It is an outrageous slur," she said.
Manager of opposition business Christopher Pyne called for the MP responsible to fess up and apologise.
Chief government whip Joel Fitzgibbon rose to his feet.
He said he believed there were a number of interventions from the government side during Ms Bishop's provocative speech.
"And I do a catch-all apology for any that I might have made," he said.
- AAP
