Annastacia Palaszczuk has put her premiership on the line by sacking Billy Gordon, the Member for Cook, from the ALP and asking him to resign his seat.
The state of the parties now is that the LNP has 42, the ALP 43, the Katter Party has two and there are two independents, Peter Wellington and Billy Gordon. To govern a party needs 45 votes, including the casting vote of the speaker, currently Peter Wellington.
To cut to the chase, Gordon is not legally obliged to resign, and I suspect he won’t. The Katter Party are in talks with Labor, as they “don’t want to be in the business of tearing down governments every six months or every year.”
The Katter Party:
wants Labor’s commitment on improving regional roads, water development, mandating ethanol in fuel and setting up a rural development bank.
This whole matter was raised by Geoff Henderson on the NSW election thread. For posterity I’ll attempt to outline the relevant information here.
The Brisbane Times link contains the full text of Gordon’s statement about his past. His record with the law is summarised at the ABC:
- Breaking and entering and stealing in 1987 in Innisfail
- Breaking and entering with intent, attempted breaking and entering and stealing in 1990 in Atherton
- Breach of probation in 1992 in Atherton
- Public nuisance in 1996 in Normanton and breach of bail conditions in 1999
- Driver licence suspended for unlicensed driving in 2004 and 2008
- Served with an Apprehended Violence Order in 2008 after a complaint by his mother.
I understand he also falsified tax returns to avoid paying child support. Furthermore on Friday Palaszczuk referred Gordon to police amid allegations he abused a former partner a decade ago.
Gordon has deceived the public, the ALP in pre-selection and Palaszczuk said he looked her in the eye and lied to her. He should resign from parliament.
However, his statement published in the Brisbane Times makes much of his underprivileged upbringing and his yearning for a “perfect father figure” when he got into trouble with the law as a teenager. I get the impression that he has forgiven himself much, and will do so again. His latest statement:
Mr Gordon, the member for Cook, said in a statement he was weighing up his options and needed time to seek further legal advice and discuss the matter with his family and supporters.
“I am very concerned that I should be afforded natural justice in any determination that my tenure as the Member for Cook should be terminated because of [the Premier’s] move to see me expelled from the Labor Party and her wish for me to resign as a Member of Parliament,” the statement said.
“The Premier has previously requested that the Police Commissioner investigate whether I have transgressed any law and that process should be allowed to continue its natural course.
“Any other attempt to remove me from the Parliament and force me to resign is a denial of natural justice.”
He said in the statement he had a “serious eye operation” on Monday.
Legally Professor Graeme Orr of Queensland University said Mr Gordon could only be forced to resign from Parliament if he served more than a year in jail.
A question has been raised as to whether Labor should accept Gordon’s vote. Personally I think this would only further disenfranchise the citizens of Cook.
Meanwhile the Katter Party are asking quite a lot of a cash-strapped government. The alternatives then are trying to govern as a minority government, or going to the people. Katter plus LNP does not add up without Wellington, and it is doubtful that he would give the LNP a go.
I understand that the LNP in post-polling analysis believe that dislike of Campbell Newman was worth about 7% to Labor. On that basis they would expect to win in a canter. Graham Young who has also done some polling believes that there was a significant “protest vote element” of people wanting to send the Newman government a message, but not wanting to elect Labor.
Update: Gordon holds Cook on a margin of more that 6%.
Courage! Integrity!
What more can one say.
You Queenslanders , including the KP, would be absolute fools to dump her . She is what we want all our pollies be. or at least, what we say we want them to be.
We all do it. Our government of choice loses by a small margin and we say that the reason was “a misjudged protest vote” and the result would be different if we had another vote now. Countering this there is “a group of voters who voted against change because of fears about the opposition.” Fears that fade once people realise that their fears are groundless.
People underestimated Anastacia in opposition and , from what I can see, some are making the mistake of underestimating her in government. In the meantime the Courier Mail headlines are frothing about paralysis etc. Tells me more about the headline writers than how the government is going.
Says a lot about the complacency and/or incompetence of the LNP ” Dirt Unit ” before the election too.
Had his opponents known and used this two week out, I’m betting his and a few other seats may have gone the other way.
This’ll wake em up I recon.
Raises the question of who in the media sat on this till now.
Given that Labor won the seat of Cook by a healthy margin I can see no ethical reason why Gordon’s vote should be rejected by Labor.
Some might want to argue that, by contrast, it would be unethical for the LNP to accept the vote of someone who got elected as a Labor candidate. However, there are plenty of precedents for people leaving the party that they were elected as candidates for and voting with other parties with out anyone trying to reject their vote.
Jumpy: I had a quick look at criminal history checks. People may need criminal history check certificates to get jobs etc.
A key point of the system is
This means that political opponents should not be able to get access to your record.
The other point is that it only covers convictions. Someone who is charged but not convicted will have no record.
John
And yet here we are……
The other point is that it only covers convictions. Someone who is charged but not convicted will have no record.
(Sorry, don’t know why premature publication happened )
A lot of layers get ” No Conviction Recorded ” from the Beak if the convicted claims future loss of income.
Two points. First I believe Prof Orr is saying that any attempt to coerce, bully or otherwise influence Gordon to resign is illegal.
Secondly, I heard on the radio that anything older than 10 years drops off your official criminal record.
Brian
Palaszczuk said;
“I also told the member for Cook, in the best interests of the party, in the best interests of the Parliament and in the best interests of Queensland, he should resign as a member of Parliament.”
If Orr is correct then Ms P is in legal strife too.
The next few polls will tell if anyone really cares.
Jumpy, I heard Prof Orr on the radio this morning. He was using words like “intimidation” and “coercion”. Obviously it’s a matter of judgement but I don’t see the Police Commissioner sending his walloppers down George Street.
Billy Gordon has said that he will not quit politics immmediately. He said in an interview published in the Western Cape Bulletin newspaper today, Mr Gordon denied any allegations of violence.
He is quoted in the paper saying he was not
.
He also said that he would
He reportedly told the paper he should have been more open about his past and that he would cooperate with any police investigation into the assault claims.
If I were a Cook voter I would be hoping Billy procrastinates for a long time. While Billy procrastinates Cook will get a lot more attention than it normally does from government and opposition.
Jackie Trad has reportedly said:
I guess the reality is that when you combine an opposition who believes that they were robbed of government with a domestic dispute detachment is going to be in short supply.