Humble servant of the Nation

Worst outcome for Coalition is if Barnaby Joyce continues to dig in

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It might have made for an amusing office sweep. Three politicians clinging perilously to power. One wondered who would be the first to drop off the branch and by early this morning we had the answer.

If you had South African President Jacob Zuma in the sweep, you’d be a winner today. Zuma’s own political party, the African National Congress, had pledged to vote for a motion of no confidence in him. There was no way out and at several minutes to midnight in political terms (around 10.00pm South African time) and with no alternatives left, Zuma walked away.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, grimly hangs on to his job despite Israeli Police recommending his indictment on fraud and bribery charges while our very own Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, stands defiant in the face of a scandal that would see any normal person wander off into the sunset.

Full column here.

117 Comments

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    Of course, Mr Insider, if you want to look at the worst clingers to power look no further than the murderous tyrants such as Fidel Castro, Gaddaffi, Stalin and of late Kim Jong-un who were and are only too happy to kill thousands of their own countrymen and women so they can live a life of luxury and stay in power. We even have feeble minded “featherbrains” who admire this behaviour and champion it. Shame on them!

  • Boadicea says:

    Goodness me. A startling comment from a journalist on RN this morning who told us that the sexual tension in the air down the corridors of Parliament House is so strong that it’s almost palpable!
    Sounds like the bonking police will have their work cut out for them.

  • Jean Baptiste says:

    Let us not forget, in spite of all the brouhaha, misdemeanors hurt and pain (yall get over it and laugh about it someday) a child, we sincerely hope is born. A life is created, one of us, that otherwise might never have come to be.
    At the end of the day, what can be better than?

    Sing, you bastards.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY3omdNwGWA

    • Carl on the Coast says:

      At various satges in my own life JB, I must confess to having exhibited the characteristics of a rogue, rascal and reprobate, but my personal documents indicate I’m not a bastard. Having said that, I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed that EP clip. Thank you, it’s one of my favourites.

      You surely are a soft-hearted bastard afterall me old mate.

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        Welllllllll, Carl I was never a rogue or rascal, just delightfully irresponsible and promiscuous.
        “Bastards” in the context was not meant to be taken literally but if you felt exempted from singing along that’s a good thing. I was quoting this fellow who exhorts the audience “sing you bastards.”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEx9qDw2flY

        PS Never mind your “personal documents” , DNA is the gold standard these days.

    • Boadicea says:

      It is a bit sad to have to bear the label of his father’s “gross misjudgment.”
      But then it’s usually the children that suffer in this sort of stuff – sometimes a life sentence.

  • jack says:

    perhaps Malcolm should make this retrospective.

    no, not about Barnaby, but we could investigate Ben Chifley, Black Jack McEwen, John Gorton, Jim Cairns, and perhaps I should stop before i get to the living, but lets say quite a few in the best government in my lifetime, and on it goes.

    this is just about the stupidest PM decision I have seen in my lifetime.

    wonder how Barrie Cassidy and a few will go with this. he was a key adviser to Hawkee, in a government that did not exactly have marital fidelity and non-bonking of staffers, or media for that matter, as a cornerstone of it’s principals.

    how about a bit of the old what did you know and when did you know it game for them.

  • Boadicea says:

    “Take leave and consider your position” is a polite request for a resignation in these days of Unfair Dismissal navigation.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      That may be what was implied but the instruction could be taken to mean “have a holiday and try out some new positions to adapt to the current physical condition of your partner.”
      Hoity toity polite big end of town palaver is open to interpretation in the sticks.

  • Dwight says:

    So, Turnbull has decided that MPs can no longer sleep with staff. What could go wrong? Murder is illegal, so we no longer have that to worry about!

  • Not Finished Yet says:

    I may be the only person in Australia whose opinion of Barnaby has actually gone up since the news broke. Mind you, that’s only because when I first heard it on the radio there was a bit of noise and, given Barnaby’s rural inclinations, I understandably assumed that it was not a staffer that he had got pregnant, but a staffy, to which he bears some resemblance. I would put nothing beyond these Nats.

  • BASSMAN says:

    Left a good job in the city
    Workin’ for the man ev’ry night and day
    And I never lost one minute of sleepin’
    Worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been
    Big wheel keep on turnin’
    Proud Mary keep on burnin’
    Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river

    Goodbye Barnes

  • Boadicea says:

    Tasmania “blacked out – its all over the news” squawks Dismayed excitedly.
    Furthermore it’s all the Liberals fault apparently. Where on earth do you get that idea from?
    Precisely 20,000 properties lost power due to fallen trees, and flying debris, mainly up north. Hardly a total blackout. In all the years i’ve lived here I have never had a power failure in my suburb actually.
    We don’t have power generation issues here Dismayed. Lots of hydro.
    But we do have lots and lots of big trees which blow down onto power lines in 60 knot gusts. Not sure how good Labor would be at diverting Westerly fronts coming through – but you never know i guess.
    Anyway feel free to tell as many people as you can that Tassie is a really crap place to live. Mainlanders everywhere wanting to buy up the place. We don’t want them.

    • Dismayed says:

      Yvonne you have gone from 50km/h yesterday to 60 knots today? How can anyone believe anything that spews out of your mouth? SA experienced 190km/h winds that knocked down some 40 odd Transmission towers. There was NO Generation issue. Multiple AEMO reports stated this. SA is part of the National Electricity Market. You may not have heard of it, it has only been running since the 1990’s. Regardless SA has been Exporting Power into the NEM for all but a couple of extremely hot days. You have no idea but you continued to bleat for over 12 months about Power issues. Your backwater cant keep the lights on when a stiff breeze blows but you want to attack SA which has people from all over the world investing in it. Stick to what you know. Having said that I expect to hear very little from you. apart from you obsessions with me. No Surprises.

  • Rhys Needham says:

    In much sadder political news, sometime Zimbabwean Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has passed away from colorectal cancer in a South African hospital aged just 65.

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