The Attorney General can't be a$$ed doing his job. Reads a book of poetry instead.

BYO book.

Common decency dictates that one should at least act interested when somebody is talking, particularly if it’s while one is on the clock.

But Attorney-General George Brandis doesn’t give a stuff.

Clearly expecting to be bored at a Senate estimates hearing (where Senators scrutinise how taxpayer money is being spent, no biggie) earlier this week, Brandis arrived armed with a book. Of poems.

As his colleagues discussed Australia’s international diplomatic footprint on Wednesday night, the Senator openly read Our Country, a collection of classic Australian bush poems, for half an hour.

While conversation in the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee may not have been the most stimulating, let’s remember that he does get paid a six-figure salary to actually care about how public money is spent.

And, unless he is planning on drafting some legislation in prose, that book doesn’t appear to be work-related (but props for it being a patriotic read).

But don’t worry about your hard-earned dollars going to waste. Apparently Senator Brandis is great at multi-tasking.

He has defended his right to read, telling Fairfax Media: “I find it very easy to read and listen to Senate estimates at the same time.”

“All questions directed to me were answered in full,” he added.

And he likely has plenty more reading material, with around $35,000 of taxpayer’s money having already been spent on a bookshelves for his office and books and magazines for the senator.

But at least he was still awake…

Watch this hilarious video of the Liberal member for Moore, Ian Goodenough, struggling to stay awake during discussion about the carbon and mining taxes:

In other Brandis-related news, his face has been superimposed over famous works of art after he recently announced budget cuts to the Australia Council of the Arts.

Check it out on Twitter or in this video: 

(Credit: Art of Brandis from Feral Arts on Vimeo.)

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