This is what democracy looks like: Parliament's final, unedifying sitting day for 2019

A month earlier, the global environmental movement had foreshadowed its plot to block politicians from leaving Parliament House on the final sitting day of the year.

The threat - issued through a polite press release no less - caused anxiety in the Department of Parliamentary Services.

It warned unwitting staff on Thursday to park at West Block if they wanted to avoid the forewarned chaos.

The impending protest also drew out a full collectors set of police and protective service officers. Cops with dogs, cops on dirt bikes, even cops on bicycles.

And yet - much like the actual democracy that was grinding to a halt in the house up the hill - it was, frankly, a little underwhelming.

In scenes engineered for the waiting cameras, 50 or so protesters mildly annoyed motorists for 55 minutes. With police plodding along behind, they waved and chanted from three separate locations in order to prevent politicians reaching their airport.

If they had blockaded all three locations at once, they might have actually achieved their goal.

But apart from briefly mobbing a car and motorcycle, the most disruption that was caused was when protesters milled across the entrance to the House of Representatives car park on their way back up to Parliament. One protester noted they probably would have caused more of a ruckus had they stationed themselves there.

But it was hardly the most unedifying stunt of the day.

When Attorney General Christian Porter moved to ram his revived union busting bill through the House, Labor managed to shut the chamber down for a full 15 minutes, claiming there were no physical copies of the legislation around.

"There are no copies anywhere. I haven't seen it," Labor leader Anthony Albanese lamented.

He used the intermission to hold a presser, where he likened the government's actions to a totalitarian state. How could Labor be expected to vote on legislation it hadn't seen, he said, not withstanding the fact it was the same bill (in everything but name) that the Senate had rejected a week prior, and it was readily available online.

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Mr Porter accused Labor of pilfering 10 copies out of the chamber. Attorney-General spokesman Mark Dreyfus hotly denied the charge.

Clerks quietly pointed out a pile of bills had been in the chamber all along. The Serjeant-of-Arms dutifully brought in another stack.

"I am just going to work on the basis that that was a genuine belief [there were no bills there]," Speaker Tony Smith said, somewhat tiredly.

Not to be outdone in the ridiculous stakes, Energy Minister Angus Taylor continued his streak of superb judgement and demanded US author Naomi Wolf apologise to him, after he accused her of spearheading a war on Christmas at Oxford in his maiden speech six years ago.

Wolf hit back, saying she was on the other side of the world at the time, loved Christmas and accused the Energy Minister of antisemitic dog whistling.

Mr Taylor - who only ended up in this mess because he tried to take a cheap shot at Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore with travel figures later found to be fake - instead claimed he was the victim here.

"Mr Speaker, my grandmother was Jewish and my belief in Judeo-Christian values is deeply held," he said.

Democracy, indeed.