Coffee table saga: Crying over spilt milk?

Click play to listen to Waste Watch spokesman Pat Conroy with Neil Mitchell.

A broken coffee table reflects poorly on both dumped Prime Minster Tony Abbott and the man who replaced him, Labor says.

The Italian marble table was broken during a party in the prime ministerial suite hours after Mr Abbott was defeated by Malcolm Turnbull in a ballot for the leadership of the Liberal Party on the night of September 14.

On Monday, Mr Abbott took responsibility for the damage and said he would pay for the repairs, expected to cost about $1000.

But Labor’s Waste Watch spokesman, MP Pat Conroy, thinks there’s much more to this story.

‘I wouldn’t say it’s the issue of the century but we are talking about damage to a Commonwealth property of about $1000,’ he told Neil Mitchell.

‘I think there’s serious questions.

‘(Paying the money back) a good start, (but) there is an issue of why it took a month to find out what happened and who’s going to be held responsible, and that reflects poorly on Tony and Prime Minister Turnbull.

‘If it hadn’t come out at Senate Estimates, would anyone have paid for the damage?’