COLLECTABLES:

Two eagle-eyed Canberrans stand to make a quick killing on eBay after each stumbled across an item that they hope potential buyers will recognised as important symbols of not just the current 47^th federal parliament but perhaps the history of 21^st Century Australian politics in general.

The first lucky find was by an attendant at the House of Representatives last Thursday when Thelma-May – not her real name – stumbled across the drawing pin that Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry had pressed into the palm of her right hand to create the tears that David Crowe saw as she left the chamber after being viciously bullied and humiliated by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Ms Landry dropped the pin just behind the last row of Opposition backbench seating after its work was done and Thelma-May picked up the bloodied pin soon after.

“I hadn’t realised its significance at the time but it later dawned on me that’s how she done it. I’ve never used a pin like that but I do work on a nail to bring on the waterworks when Merv (her husband but not his real name) is giving me the shits.”

The second stroke of luck belongs to one of the parliamentary precinct’s ground staff.

Trev – not his real name – was trimming a hedge bordering one of the parliament’s courtyards when Ms Landry and a clutch of her women parliamentary colleagues emerged for a hastily-arranged media call at which Landry recounted what awful and sexist bullies Labor lefties were now and had always been and why Albanese should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for staring and shouting at her seeing she’s just a women.

Trev quickly realised that a small jar of Vicks VapoRub that he observed being discarded by the group (below) before they reentered the building had been used by all the women to smear gel under their eyelids.

As this issue of The Bug was being prepared for uploading, eBay offers for Thelma-May’s drawing pin had reached $1500 and Trev’s VapoRub jar was not far behind at $1350.

A collectables expert who also deals in political memorabilia told The Bug this morning that both prices would most likely soar when the museum in the old parliament house became interested, as it invariably would, and political writers also saw their values as symbols of how the modern Liberal and National parties operate.