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Veteran Labor MP Laurie Ferguson has hit out at his colleagues taking part in dramatic re-enactments of Labor's leadership wars in the sensational ABC television documentary The Killing Season.
Mr Ferguson singled out parliamentary newcomer Senator Sam Dastyari, who served as the ALP's New South Wales state secretary when Kevin Rudd was rolled, for particular criticism.
Senator Dastyari was filmed talking on his iPhone 6 walking down Lonsdale Street in Melbourne and sitting at a park bench.
He recounted receiving a phone call from the ALP's pollster in 2010 warning the Labor Party would be "bloody stuffed" at an election if Mr Rudd remained leader.
Mr Ferguson told Fairfax Media Senator Dastyari's performance was "pitiful".
"I find it rather pitiful for parliamentarians to be auditioning for later careers," the backbencher said.
"Seeing MPs re-enact events looking all worried and concerned in the middle of the street in Melbourne is pretty pathetic," he added.
We are grateful to @samdastyari for his role in dramatic reconstructions #auspol— Laurie Ferguson (@FergusonLMP)
June 16, 2015
When contacted for a response, Senator Dastyari laughed off the criticism, which he said had been flowing freely from friends and colleagues.
"The feedback I've been given by everybody is that there is no acting career waiting in the wings, stick to politics, I'm not getting nominated for a Logie," he said.
And he conceded, "and yes there were no iPhone 6s back in 2010".
Labor MP Tony Burke was also filmed walking through Parliament House but said he was never told the footage would be used as part of dramatic re-enactment.
"I was asked to provide standard stock footage at my opposition desk and walking through the opposition areas of Parliament," he said.
"It's a standard request which I agreed to with every news organisation in the past.
"At no point was it be described to me as a re-enactment of anything."
The team behind the documentary has posted a blog about the extraordinary efforts they went to to recreate some of the key historic political moments.
"At times, we were able to get access to key talent, like Labor MP Tony Burke, who we shot walking through corridors in Parliament House. But we shot this footage with two cameras, one shooting in a rough way, similar to news style, and the other in a smooth more crafted way to create 'vignettes' to get in and out of the archive footage," Louie Eroglu, director of photography, said.
Almost 1 million viewers tuned in to watch the second episode of The Killing Season on Tuesday night. The number was only slightly down on last week's overnight figure.
