Mr Martin has rejected claims he made the obscene gestures towards opposition health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner during a debate over health on Tuesday.

But Mrs Skinner has demanded he apologise or be removed from his position as Government Whip.

“I believe that he needs to make an apology and I believe that the premier Kristina Keneally needs to demand that he resign as whip,” she told reporters afterwards.

“I’m no wuss, but I believe this is unacceptable behaviour in parliament, where we’re supposed to have standards, where the whip particularly should be upholding the respect and traditions of the parliament.

“This is boorish, juvenile behaviour that premier Kristina Keneally should not tolerate.”

The alleged gestures came as Ms Keneally rose to answer a health-related question from Nationals’ leader Andrew Stoner.

As Mr Martin describes it, though, the two raised fingers were simply a reference to polling this week that showed the Nationals’ support had dropped to two per cent.

“I was sitting right behind the premier and I lifted my two fingers towards Andrew, meaning two per cent, and he took no offence to it at the time,” Mr Martin told the Advocate.

“I was even yelling out ‘two per cent’ – a lot of us [on the government benches] were. How Jillian Skinner, sitting at 45 degrees from me, took offence is beyond me.

“If that’s offensive then poor old Winston Churchill must have offended a lot of people with his V for Victory salutes.”

Mr Martin said he had viewed footage of the incident and would be making a statement to parliament to defend himself.

“I certainly won’t be apologising, though, for something that didn’t happen,” he said.

This not the first time Mr Martin has been accused of offensive behaviour in parliament.

A year ago he was accused of using the “f-word” when remonstrating with opposition staffers.

He later apologised for breaching protocol by approaching the staffers directly rather than through the Speaker of the House.