A slippery option

[erudito]

When the LNP (Liberal National Party, Queensland) looked like it might dump Peter Slipper as an MP, the Gillard Government decided there was an opportunity to improve its precarious House of Representatives numbers and make the disgruntled MP Speaker.

How is that working out for them? Not so good, with sexual allegations on top of a previous

Comments

[catsidhe]

Heaven forfend the Liberal party should have any responsibility for all those years he was in the fold.

Realpolitics

[erudito]

Labor have taken on the Liberal's mistake because they thought it was really clever thing to do. So, the political reality is they now "own" him. "He used to be one of yours" really doesn't cut it. Particularly when the easy response is "and about Craig Thomson ...".

Re: Realpolitics

[catsidhe]

The Liberals looked after him well enough for long enough, and it's now coming out "Oh, but Howard had problems with him in the past and..."

The Liberals can cry from the rooftops that Labor are bad people for having anything to do with him, but they do not get to claim the slightest moral superiority on that basis.

Re: Realpolitics

[erudito]

the slightest moral superiority on that basis. So not my point.

It is actually quite hard for a sitting Liberal or National Party Member to lose endorsement (and a big mistake, given internal Party dynamics, which are very different from how the ALP works, for any Federal Leader, even a sitting PM, to get involved). So, if it is under threat, that is a generally a bad sign.

He was the Coalition's problem. He is now the ALP's problem, because of the ALP's actions.

Re: Realpolitics

[catsidhe]

The Daily Telegraph reports said court documents showed that John Howard's government had been aware of other allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Slipper as far back as 2003.

Is it really that hard to lose pre-selection.

Uh-huh.

Sure, investigate. Sure it's up to Labor to do something about it now.

But equally well everyone else can point at the Liberals and point out "well, he didn't seem to be bad enough to do anything about for all those years you knew what was going on and didn't see fit to do anything about it."