Updated

An Australian senator startled his colleagues during a committee hearing by pulling a fake pipe bomb out of shopping bag.

Sen. Bill Heffernan, who represents the ruling Liberal Party, was trying to make a point about lax security at the Parliament building.

The 71-year-old wheat farmer produced what appeared to be a pipe bomb and several sticks of dynamite taped together while the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee was questioning the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus.

Negus later told the committee that Heffernan had warned him that he would produce the fake bomb. Negus said he "was satisfied that it was inert." But the other senators weren't warned.