First Dog socks now in stock at the Crikey Emporium!
A cautionary tale…
Crichton-Browne: Buswell’s departure a tragedy. Sniff.
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The Western Australian Liberal Party continues to break records. It has now had four leaders in three years and is about to have its fifth with two of those leaders individually breaking the record for the shortest period as a Liberal Parliamentary Leader. The Party began this parliamentary term with Colin Barnett who led the party to defeat at the 2005 election. He was replaced by Matt Birney, who was beginning only his second parliamentary term as the member for Kalgoorlie. Birney was dumped after only 13 months in favour of Paul Omodei in spite of the fact that Birney’s approval ratings were still in the forties until a campaign of destabilisation began against him. Omodei, a political dill, was a conspicuously insignificant and inconsequential former Court government Minister whose leadership was predictably a spectacular failure. Omodei is best remembered as having accidentally shot his son in the hand in a shooting incident on the family farm. Omodei apparently thought the safety mechanism was on when he aimed the rifle at his son. Omodei won the leadership by just one vote; that vote coming from Buswell in spite of the fact that Buswell had been warned by others who had worked with Omodei in government including former Premier Richard Court that Omodei was a dud. Predictably Omodei lasted just under two years, having reached the dizzy approval rating heights of 37% while effortlessly driving up his disapproval levels to 41%. Typical of those promoted beyond their station, Omodei became quite convinced that he was made for the job and was deeply and publicly bitter at his inevitable dumping. Omodei was to be replaced by Troy Buswell who lasted just six months. Buswell became embroiled in two notorious incidents, the second of which with the assistance of Omodei supporters was to be fatal to his leadership and lead directly to his resignation. Both incidents were the result of adolescent and stupid misbehaviour, the first alcohol induced. In the first incident Buswell snapped the bra strap of a staffer in parliament house. In the second incident he feigned sniffing the chair seat of a female staff member. Neither woman made a formal complaint however Omodei’s supporters ensured that both incidents were passed onto the media. The response in the electorate to Buswell’s chair sniffing particularly amongst women voters was poisonous. Buswell was not helped by the appalling advice he received from those closest to him following the second incident which led him to first hide from the media upon its revelation and then to describe the media report as unsubstantiated rumour. Days later he was forced to admit to the incident by which time it had developed a life of entirely unnecessary proportions. Buswell’s approval rating slumped to 14% and his disapproval rating rose to 52%. Polling in recent weeks first by the Labor Party, followed by the ‘West Australian’ newspaper and then subsequently by the Liberal Party shows that the Liberal Party could not win government with Buswell however it could do so with former leader, Colin Barnett. Had Buswell not cast his vote for Omodei, Omodei would never have been leader and would not consequently have harboured the bitterness and rage from his own sacking which poisoned Buswell’s leadership. Had time shown Birney not to be up to the job, Buswell would have naturally inherited the position without bitterness or rancour. The political tragedy for the Western Australian Liberal Party is that it has lost a leader of high intellect, excellent debating skills and good presentation destroyed by school boy misbehaviour. |
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21 Comments
One of the best evenings of my life was spent chewing the fat with the late Don Dunstan, former SA Labor Premier from the 1970’s, at his Norwood restaurant. This was during the late 90’s, when Labor was in opposition at both SA state and federal level. Don bemoaned the SA ALP of the time as being the plaything of factional bosses intent purely on dividing up the spoils of defeat. The SA branch has done well to rethink itself into a much more successful organisation. Meanwhile, Don’s description would appear to perfectly fit the WA Libs. When leadership votes are cast on the basis of promises of promotions or ongoing security of preselection and not cast on the basis of electability and political talent, parties are buggered.
Please! High intellect - his behaviour was beyond stupid and immensely offensive. And to write it off as ‘school boy misbehaviour’ is ridiculous.
High intellect?! What must the stupid ones get up to?
How’s Noel Crichton-Brown’s form? A social leper emerges to bemoan the loss of another political moron! The only tragic element to Buswell’s decision to step down as Party leader is that he didn’t go far enough. The bra-snapping, seat-sniffing MP should have removed himself from the Parliament to reflect with his buddy Crichton-Browne, their joint denegration of public office as serving MPs. NC-B’s shameful past (leaving aside his affiliation with Brian Burke) is linked to domestic violence and Party expulsion for threatening a female journalist with “I’ll screw your tits off’ . Atleast in his ripe old age Noel recognises he and Troy have a shared sickness - adult males with a proclivity for “school-boy behaviour”. Surely the WA Liberals can pass around the hat and get them both good medical help?
Welcome back, Colin. At least the Labor Party won’t enjoy a free ride through the election. And bagging Colin over the canal is so worn out that it has no further currency. Labor Party faces a real battle for government now. Colin can offer a government free of coruption and cover-ups and a Liberal government capable of maging the public sector for public benefit rather than benefit of select mates’ vested interests.
Well written article Noel. Why am I surprised?
see if you can guess which of the above former leaders was in the pocket of Crichton-Browne
and please don’t forget that Crichton-Browne was himself expelled from the Party as the result of “adolescent and stupid misbehaviour” of his own
Politics is indeed a strange business in WA. Noel Crichton-Browne writing a character reference for Troy Buswell? It reminds me of the days of Bjelke Petersen here in Qld where Kafkaesque absurdity reigned supreme. I guess that’s life in a frontier state. The Liberal Party is just a laughing stock all over the Country.
somebody must have pulled the seat from him
I’m agreeing with the definitions of intelligence. Smart people in public positions of power know they are always under scrutiny.
It’s a rare thing that I agree with Tony P but he’s right about the canal. It was a dumb plan as far as infrastructure investment goes, but it was political gold and it definitely won votes. The WA Libs were the only state Lib party to fight off a landslide loss at the hands of a first-term ALP state government anywhere in the country. They did this because while the canal was insane, it was all about state-building and looking for solutions to mounting problems. Other state Lib parties have only managed to look pretty irrelevant against first-term ALP governments - a bit of bitching about how they’d be better, a bit of ramping up law and order, but nothing as ambitious as that canal was.
School boy misbehaviour? Is Noel Crichton-Browne serious when he writes that dribble? We need better leaders and role models in this country than those who snap bras of a colleague at work and sniff their chairs.
Well written article Noel. Why am I surprised?
Troy was on the nose, Noel. No good getting snappy about it.
The talent shortage in the Liberal Party must be more severe than I suspected if Troy Buswell counts among their intellectual elite.
Barnet has one big problem..He said he was leaving goverment and the preselected candidate has said she won’t step aside..And niether should she ..She was approached by the Lib’s to run , gave up a high paid job and has been door knocking around Cotesloe for last 4 months ..
If she decieded to stay , Barnet will have a hell of a job to be leader without a seat…lol
Rest Assured, I shall be writing to each individual, mainly to find out how you get an approval rating of up to 14%.
What a shame that we poor sandgropers have missed out on having a leader of such high intellect. If he was so bloody clever why did he vote for Omodei? The fact is that Buswell, apart from his well publicised sleazyness, was also a very disloyal and stupid shadow deputy leader when he undermined Birney. The fact is that State Governments of all parties are full of laughable no-hopers who couldn’t run a chook raffle. The taxpayer should be spared the cost and aggravation by abolishing the lot of them.
By the way, after water shortages and two expensive and environmentally costly desalination plants, spending some of WA’s riches on bringing water down from the flooded Kimberley doesn’t sound that ridiculous to me.
Strewth, if things couldn’t get worse for Buswell he’s now got Crichton-Browne, tit-screwer extraordinaire, spruiking for him. What next, a supportive Op-Ed from Brian Burke?
The Libs in WA have pretty much given anyone with a drop of talent, no matter how small, a go at the top job and they’ve come full circle to Barnett, who has the head for policy and maths but the charisma of a corpse (and the warmth to match). If the Libs think this Z-Grade team is good enough to form a coherent 21st century government then God help the Sandgropers.
It’s a shame, all of the headlines that the papers now can’t use for the election. “Buswell smells victory in marginal seat” etc.
I hope Crikey isn’t paying that political pariah for his arrogant rantings. I don’t want a schoolboy running the state and if I did I’d look for a smarter one with better social graces and less reptilian friends. NCB’s endorsement is lethal at the polls, so keep it up. West Australians don’t forget NCB’s standard of behaviour so get off your soapbox you tosser.