It started with an accusation of lying about electric bus numbers in the ACT and ended with the implication a politician had not been upfront about a former career.
There was no love lost in the Legislative Assembly this week.
The normal argy-bargy between the government and the opposition was even stronger and Labor and the Greens traded barbs about incompetent ministers and housing policies.
Did someone say election year?
But it was a seemingly random moment during a debate about the bus fleet where it became personal.
City Services Minister Tara Cheyne took aim at the Liberals' Peter Cain.
"Stop trying to be a principal, oh, that's right you were never one," she said.
Ms Cheyne's interjection was based on a belief that Mr Cain was not being upfront about his former career.
Mr Cain has spoken about being a principal multiple times, during campaigning and in the Legislative Assembly.
At the heart of Ms Cheyne's allegation was whether the school Mr Cain led was registered.
She was brought to task over the comment by opposition whip Nicole Lawder.
"I don't think it's an appropriate thing to imply that perhaps he pretended to be a principal at some point because it was clearly not the case. It was his career at some point before he entered the Assembly," Ms Lawder said.
In response Ms Cheyne said: "On the information I have I believe what I said to be true. My understanding is Mr Cain was only a principal of a school that was de-registered by the South Australian government back in the mid-1980s because it had too few students".
That school was the Foundation Centre Christian School. It was registered as a non-government school in November 1981 but its registration was cancelled in December 1984 due to having too few students. The school continued to run for several years following the cancellation of its registration.
But a 1990 decision from the Supreme Court of South Australia found the decision to cancel the registration was invalid and this was overturned.
The school was "set up by parents of strong religious commitment who did not want their children to be educated at a secular school", court documents say.
Ms Cheyne was forced to withdraw the comments following a ruling from Speaker Joy Burch. Ms Burch said proof transcripts had not picked up the comments from Ms Cheyne but she pointed to the fact the minister had not denied making the comment.
Ms Burch said the comment breached standing orders as it related to a personal reflection on members.
Ms Cheyne appeared to reluctantly withdraw the comments she made.
A spokeswoman for Ms Cheyne said the comment was made on publicly available information and observations.
The spokeswoman said Ms Cheyne made the comment "as an exasperated interjection in response to Mr Cain's ongoing commentary across the floor at the conclusion of the debate".
The opposition was asked to respond to the allegations, with a Canberra Liberals spokesman saying: "Ms Cheyne made a comment in the chamber that the speaker deemed a personal reflection on another MLA and she was accordingly asked to withdraw the comment and she withdrew".
