Am I really expected to sympathise

with those who are complaining about the date of the by-elections brought on by those who cannot obey the law of the land?
I was stunned to hear a certain Senator accuse the head of the AEC of bias because that same Electoral Commission had given a great deal of thought to the matter and chosen the most suitable Saturday for the elections to take place.
There will be five elections.  One is being held because an elected representative has resigned - for family reasons. He has apparently discovered that being a federal politician means he is not seeing much of  his young family. Someone should have explained to him that this is part of the job.  Politics and parenting don't really mix. 
The other four are being held because those elected were found to be dual citizens - a breach of sec.44 of the Constitution. Those breaches were entirely avoidable. Those involved have only themselves to blame.
The Leader of the Opposition was so absolutely certain that nobody on that side of the House has anything to worry about. Now he is said to be "furious" about the date because yes, there were people on that side of the  House who had something to worry about. There might be others - on both sides. I have no doubt it is being looked at now. 
But the date? I have no sympathy at all with the fact that it clashes with a major party event. It clashes with the national conference of a particular political party? Oh dear. 
I imagine it clashes with all sorts of other things as well and that it is going to be highly inconvenient for many people. They did their civic duty believing they would not need to do it again until the next election - barring illness or death. They should not need to do it again. They are  the people who should be angry. 
The rest of us should be angry too because of the cost - which will run into millions of dollars. 
To even suggest that the date has been set to somehow disrupt the national conference of a particular party is nonsense of course. Such a claim is designed to try and elicit sympathy from the electorate, "look at how the nasty AEC is trying to make it so difficult for our wonderful people caught out by that silly requirement in the Constitution".
Those wonderful people may well get back in - elections are like that - but there is even more reason now to suggest that by-elections which arise out of wrong doing like that should be paid for by the party of the wrong doer.