On what should have been an ordinary day in parliament, independent MP Kylea Tink felt so unsafe that she wanted to leave.
"Yesterday's behaviour left me feeling like my senses had been assaulted by what I experienced as excessive and unconstructive noise and aggression," she said at the end of Question Time on Thursday.
"If I could have, I would have left the chamber."
During a particularly rowdy Question Time on Wednesday, politicians were called to vote, with one member of the opposition allegedly berating Ms Tink and other crossbenchers as he returned to his seat.
"Had this been the first time I had found myself the direct attention of this behaviour, I might have brushed it off," she said.
"But this follows a pattern I have experienced more than once since I entered this chamber and I have noticed many other female colleagues have experienced this sort of treatment."
Ms Tink's indictment came hours after the government introduced a bill to provide better human resources support for those who work at Parliament House.
"I was not proud of the way my workplace was represented yesterday and quite frankly I did not feel safe," the North Sydney MP said.
On Wednesday, tensions boiled over as the Greens accused Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek of dodging over continued gas and coal mine approvals, while the opposition lambasted Transport Minister Catherine King for her responses when quizzed about the government's rejection of Qatar Airways flights and her meetings with airline chiefs.
Greens leader Adam Bandt sought to address the issue on Thursday by moving to make straight answers a parliamentary rule, though it was quickly voted down.
"People want governments to answer questions, especially during something called Question Time," Mr Bandt said.
The current parliamentary standing orders say: "An answer must be directly relevant to the question."
Crossbenchers including Allegra Spender, Zoe Daniel, Monique Ryan and Zali Steggall supported the motion, with Ms Spender labelling current Question Time procedures "self-indulgent and wasteful".
"It is a major party's shouting match. It is unedifying and it actually is detrimental to people's understanding and belief in politicians and our democratic processes," Ms Spender said.
However, Leader of the House Tony Burke defended his government's actions.
He said ministers answered questions and also noted many of the questions were political statements.
"(They are) effectively statements with a small question at the end for the purpose of making a point," he said.
House Speaker Milton Dick noted it had been a "combative week" in the chamber and the behaviour did not reflect well on the parliament "or any of us".
"We are simply not meeting the standards we should be meeting - this requires change," he said.
He said the new parliamentary standards legislation would be "just words" unless everyone acted differently.
"We must do better."
