Desperate men do desperate things. And things don’t come more desperate than Brendan Nelson’s pathetic attempt to smear the Labor Gippsland candidate yesterday by referring to his previous capacity as an arts festival organiser.

The Labor candidate in Gippsland has been promoting a show which is sexually explicit, would offend the vast majority of Australians and is inconsistent with the sort of values that we would certainly want to see represented in a candidate for the federal parliament. Mr Rudd needs to make it very clear to Australians and the people of Gippsland whether these are his standards and if this is the candidate that he really wants to represent the people of Gippsland.

But karma done got ya, Bren-doc.

It emerged yesterday, after the Opposition Leader branded Labor candidate Darren McCubbin unfit for parliament for booking the show for a local festival, that the Howard government funded the event.

And former arts minister and Liberal senator George Brandis appointed Mr McCubbin to the commonwealth peak body for festivals and praised his abilities.

This man is becoming a parody of himself.