Monday 30 March 2015

"The question now is whether Anna Palaszcuzuk

will accept his vote," the earnest dog walker told me. 
The dog had stopped to "talk" to me. He is usually walked by a woman I know by her dog and he usually gets a pat from me. He's a nice dog. 
His master is, it seems, one of those determinedly "political" people. He brought up the situation almost immediately. He asked me for my opinion and then did not allow me to give it to him - not that I would have anyway. It would be unwise to give him an opinion about anything. 
But the situation is an interesting one. Earlier this year there was an election in another state. The government was "on the nose" - partly because of the media, partly because of the way they handled the media and partly because it had needed to do some unpopular expenditure reviews. There were other reasons as well but they were big ones.
And so a party with an inexperienced leader and an unpronounceable name got in - just. They have a majority of one. They put the "independent" in as Speaker to get that majority of one. And now they are in danger of losing that majority of one. Yes, a couple of months into their term one of the team has been expelled from the party for not revealing a range of criminal offences that do not make him ineligible to be an MP but do raise serious questions about his candidature. 
The interesting thing is that he does not need to resign as an MP. He might not. He argues he has "turned his life around". 
The next interesting question is whether his former boss will still accept his vote? Will she in fact accept his vote to stay in power herself? Should she do it? If she does is she in effect condoning his behaviour - or has her previous statement been sufficient to condemn him and yet allow him "for stability" to accept his vote.
My guess is that, if he refuses to resign from parliament, she will accept his vote. She really doesn't have a choice. And he may even be able to get more for his electorate by threatening to withdraw it. 
What I think about all that is another matter. I will however say one thing - I have no desire to be a politician. 

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