While the festive season has brought a spate of incidents involving Parliamentarians, their antics sadly go on all year round. Some MPs are definitely the gifts that keep on giving.
Up in the Sunshine state, Gold Coast MP Phil Gray has the frail, aged and media running for cover. The Member for Gaven threatened to sue two of his elderly constituents for voicing their opinion along with a local publisher if it reported his clangers. In a hopelessly inarticulate letter he told one of the women, a 74-year-old pensioner, she’ll face legal action if she doesn’t stop slights on his character that are ‘patiently’ untrue.
“I care not why (sic) you say about my opponent but I care deeply about slights on my character and I ask that you desist from making such comments. If I am informed that this has occurred in the future I will have no hesitation is (sic) pursuing my defence (sic) in the courts,” he wrote.
Days later, a 63-year-old woman revealed Gray had already launched litigation against her for a casual reference to his “exile” from the ALP in an internal Party memo. Bedridden after major surgery the Labor volunteer said a letter from Gray’s lawyers claimed the MP wanted $10,000 for the “hurt and embarrassment” caused by the remark.
“Politicians seem to have less civil and legal rights in this country than others” whined the former teacher who clearly forgot he and other state and federal MPs enjoy what is called parliamentary privilege – immunity in the parliament from the charges with which he menaced his victim. Just months out from a state election Premier Anna Bligh has warned Gray to consider his political future that resumed as Bligh assured the women the litigation was off and they could expect nothing from Gray other than an apology.
Rockhampton MP Robert Schwarten is also a shoot-from-the lip intractable who recently gave one more rendition of his “blokey behaviour” at another late-night sitting in the House. A couple of months back he denied asking ALP defector Ronan Lee to “step outside” the parliamentary dining room but this time he fessed up to menacing LNP front-bencher Jann Stuckey with an “I’ll get you” as she left the chamber. Over the years Schwarten’s pumped-up performances have been well-documented including his post Labor Day Picnic dustup with federal MP Kirsten Livermore’s husband and fallouts with other MPs including Jan Jarratt and Ray Hopper. Schwarto’s now on notice over his ‘light-hearted digs’ that this time left Jann Stuckey “visibly shaken”.
Nationals’ MP Andrew Fraser also traumatizes colleagues by going ballistic on the floor of the NSW House. Last month in a melee around the dispatch box he shoved a fellow MP trying to comfort him and let fly with laced invective. Back in 2005 he lost the plot and his Party’s deputy leadership for trying to throttle Labor’s Joe Tripodi.
This time the hostilities followed Christmas drinks during debate on legislation aimed at reducing alcohol-related violence. But it’s not just the silly season that sends them off.
In 2006 Len Kiely was stood down as the NT’s Deputy Speaker after making obscene suggestions to a security worker in a government corporate box. As host to business and community leaders during an International cricket match Kiely said he regretted telling the woman he had “a very long tongue and could use it to make her a happy woman”. He also admitted he’d lost count of his alcohol consumption although event organisers reported an estimated 107 Crown Lager stubbies had been consumed in the box over the day. A brief backbench exile followed his crass act but after a ministerial reshuffle he’s now back as the Minister for Natural Resources.
Queensland’s former Emergency Services Minister Pat Purcell is sitting out his last days as the Member for Bulimba. When he was found guilty by a CMC Inquiry of slogging a couple of senior bureaucrats police charged Purcell with two counts of common assault. After months of denying the offences Purcell clinched a pre-court deal whereby he confessed to the attacks as the aggrieved were compensated. Premier Bligh consented to him departing public life “at a time of his choosing’ and he went back into the House to max out his retirement package on a promise he’d not stand at the next election.
Former Olympic aerial skier and now Victorian Labor MP Kirstie Marshall remains on thin ice over allegations she assaulted a Melbourne taxi driver outside Crown Casino earlier this year. The Victorian Taxi Association is dealing with two complaints from drivers about Ms Marshall. One alleges she was “just plain rude” and the other says Ms Marshall stepped in front of his moving cab and tried to pull the keys from the ignition. A senior Labor Party source says the stoush started when Ms Marshall and her electorate officer were refused service by the hailed cab with passengers inside. Ms Marshall believed the taxi driver couldn’t refuse to take the pair as her friend was on crutches.
A sexual harassment scandal temporarily stalled State Victorian Liberal Richard Dalla Riva’s political career in 2007 but he’s back as Opposition spokesman for State Development. Described by his Party as a “knock-about bloke” the former police officer was reported to parliament for comments made and text messages sent to an 18-year-old woman he drove home from a Party fundraiser. The matter was settled with an apology, confidentiality agreement and six months on the back bench.
You could say our major parties have a membership crisis and state and federal electorates certainly deserve better than this. Don’t they endorse talented, mature, experienced and capable individuals anymore or would they challenge the party honchos? These are loose cannons and fraudsters unable to manage their lives let alone economies and they walk off with life pensions? Labor in NSW and Queensland look like local chapters of bikie gangs with due respect to the bikies and their Christmas Appeals.
That many of the above- mentioned parliamentarians are soaks is bad enough. That they lack style, wit, charm,
education and the ability to be articulate is even worse. Finally, the fact they are elected in the first place, is nothing less than an appalling indictment on the quality of the Australian voter.
Mike – are you saying the administration of Queensland’s Emergency Services portfolio was a toss up between a lying thug and an incompetent? Purcell entered a not guilty plea (still on record) to his criminal charges (as opposed to civil) and then came clean to avoid the court case that likely would have ruined his career and retirement. He lied to his electorate and to the Premier. He’s in public office and he assaulted staff. The permutations and combinations as to why he broke the law and lied should have been determined in a court where criminal charges are heard. The point I’m making is Purcell is one of too many MPs with the help of their party and parliaments who place themselves above laws deemed ‘fair’ for all Australians other than MPs and in my view that’s corruption of the nation’s political processes.
What a bunch of hypocrites – these overpaid bullies and drunks are happy to stand on the high moral ground and get all self-righteous whenever a sportsperson or TV personality does something wrong – meanwhile their own appalling behaviour is hushed up wherever possible.
Is it any wonder its difficult to have respect for any of them?
Re Pat Purcell article.It is generally recognised within the ALP in Queensland that Pat Purcell was actually “set up”, because he doing too good a job and offending some senior bureaucrats within his department, something a junior minister in Queensland is not allowed to do. Pat was a good local member who expected to see out his time on the backbench, ex BLF and a straight shooter. But with the demise of Factional heavy Gordon Nuttall on corruption charges (now before the court) and with the next in line Labor Unity candidate Neil Roberts in trouble with factional leader Rob Schwarten over his refusal to support ANY public housing on an old state school site, Pat was called up as Emergency Services Minister. Round peg in round hole. Pat was brilliant, took to his portfolio like a fish to water and went in to bat for all of his field staff. It was a pleasure to watch. But Pat found some problems, especially in the Queensland Ambulance Service, where the existing Commissioner (whose contract was later not renewed) ran the departmental bureaucracy as a very overstaffed personal feudal fiefdom.This, combined with massive inefficiencies set Pat upon a reformist course. But he was set up before his audit was completed and off he went. While Labor Unity wil support to the death its parliamentary members who are paedophiles, crooks , opportunists or just plain incompetent (which is most of them), it will not support someone who rocks the boat.
Poor Pat, we wish him well. So , off goes Pat and in comes the affable and incompetent drone, Neil Roberts. Neils first job on succeeding to his ministry was to cancel the incredibly successful CPR training programme, run at little cost by LAC volunteers and, with the connivance of a weak union, LHMU, to put the ambos on the worst rosters in Australias industrial history, the infamous 12 hour rotating shift block rosters. (thrown out in most other jurisdictions as unsafe). It just gets worse.
Mike Crook