Daunted by wading through the acres of newsprint about today’s first sitting of parliament since the election? Afraid of eye strain from perusing all the pixels of reports online or staring at Sky all day?

Thank the perennial jokester James McGrath. The Queensland Senator has taken to Facebook this morning to explain the opening of parliament simply and succinctly:

Essentially today is a lot of speeches interspersed by a 19 gun salute and a nice afternoon tea.

There. Easy. Today is all flummery and feinting. The fun comes later.