If he was on the speakers' circuit, the former state Liberal Party leader Peter Debnam would be earning the market's top rate for local talent, if you consider what he earns for his increasingly rare addresses to State Parliament.
This year Mr Debnam was on his feet seven times, and received an annual salary, including an electoral allowance, of $163,195. That means he earned $23,000 for each address - or roughly the cost of a small car. Not that 2008 was terribly different from the year before, when he addressed Parliament eight times.
Mr Debnam's leadership ambitions may remain intact, but considering the way the budgie smuggling MP has sidelined himself from parliamentary proceedings, it can only be a matter of time before he moves on, despite protestations to the contrary.
His parliamentary lethargy compares starkly with Peter Besseling, the independent MP for Port Macquarie, who was elected to Parliament at a by-election in October. Even though he arrived for only the final few weeks of sittings this year, he managed to get to his feet nine times.
Other parliamentary cellar dwellers include the Shooters Party MLC Roy Smith, who rose to his feet nine times, and Labor MPs Paul Gibson, Cherie Burton and Eddie Obeid, with 13 addresses each.
Mr Obeid's were all Dorothy Dixers, handed out by the Government whip. And according to Hansard, this year was in fact busier than last for the number cruncher, who addressed Parliament only 10 times last year.
Ms Burton, the MP for Kogarah, mustered 12 addresses last year, but Mr Gibson has become quieter and quieter. This has done nothing to quell speculation that he, with two other western Sydney MPs, Richard Amery and John Aquilina, will not stand for
re-election in 2011. Labor wants to continue refreshing its line-up in the way that it retired the backbencher Pam Allan last year to make way for Nathan Rees.
Frank Sartor stood up and opened his mouth 16 times this year, but since September, when Mr Rees became Premier and dropped Sartor from the front bench, the Rockdale MP has been in a bit of a funk, addressing the house only four times.
The Opposition benches were little better. John Turner, until recently the Opposition spokesman for lands and mineral resources, and Steve Cansdell, a Nationals MP, addressed the house 15 times each, which means each performance was worth about $11,000.
Despite so many tight lips, it was a raucous year in Macquarie Street, with seven MPs ejected for unparliamentary behaviour: Adrian Piccoli, Andrew Constance, Ray Williams, Andrew Stoner, Charlie Lynn, Greg Pearce and Greg Smith.
Mr Stoner is a serial offender - he was ejected last year, too, along with Andrew Fraser and Turner from the lower house, and Michael Costa from the upper house.
Mr Cansdell, who represents the North Coast electorate of Clarence, was ejected from the house for cavorting with a toy iguana during the imbroglio surrounding John Della Bosca and confrontation at the Iguanas nightclub. Mr Cansdell was warned frequently about his antics in the house, and was given more formal calls to quieten down than just about any other member.
There has been a marked slip in the standard of debate since Michael Costa, the former treasurer, left the building. Costa referred to himself as a "Hummer kind of guy" not long before he was run over by the Iemma government's failure to sell off electricity. He quit politics and retreated to his Hunter Valley digs.
Mr Rees showed plenty of early promise by tapping a rich vein of colloquial language. He referred to "that serial boofhead Sheik al-Hilaly" and commented on "kiddy fiddlers". But the Premier has kept himself on a short leash.
Under constant pressure from Opposition needling, he has come close to cracking a few times, and the challenge for the Coalition remains to see if he can be pushed to lose his composure next year.
The real indication of falling standards could be seen in question time, traditionally considered the highlight of the day when Parliament is sitting. Proceedings were so lacklustre one day that Mr Stoner, the Nationals leader, played Patience on his Blackberry.
The upside of all the dross is that it made rare glimpses of wit all the more glittering. One of the quickest retorts came from the Opposition spokesman on juvenile justice, Anthony Roberts. Teased about a moustache he was growing for Movember, he snapped back: "It is irritating, unwarranted and ugly, but at least I do not have to wait until 2011 to get rid of it."
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