Yes, Tal, the very best, sorry I wasn't around at Christmas, visiting family, my tablet wouldn't allow me to log in, but a great New Year to you all.

I think there will be some jousting to do in the New Year, or at least tilting at windmills

It is unbelievable, the saga starts again, with a Labor resignation of a senior rep who just can't prove he is not a dual citizen, and Labor will refer some Liberal Halocaost family survivors in the hope of catching a sprat, or a mackerel. Shorten can't afford to fight several by-elections and it looks like he might have too. The Libs are going to stand back in the next one, and let Labor be mauled by the Greens as they fight it out in Melbourne suburbia, the Green heartland. As this by-election goes so might go Shorten

You would think that being under question as to citizenship and successfully resolving that in a by-election was enough, the deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce has proven he can't keep it in his pants and had it off with a staffer, impregnating said lady. Now he has been censured for his behaviour, causing the prime Minister to change rules and make it a sackable offence for any minister to behave in like manner, bringing the government into disrepute and so forth. However the big ego that is Barnaby isn't going to take it and now having been forced to step down as acting Prime Minister he may decide to break the coalition agreement, cross the floor and vote with the opposition effectively kicking an own goal and handing government to Labor. These country boys just don't know the rules of polite society

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-1...rattan/9454006

You guy's have scandals? How quaint that underneath the well heeled veneer Australians have the same foibles as ordinary citizens. Of course everyone knows you can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig.

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Originally Posted by talaniman

You guy's have scandals? How quaint that underneath the well heeled veneer Australians have the same foibles as ordinary citizens. Of course everyone knows you can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig.

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How inciteful of you Tal, but you are right Barnaby is a pig someone put lipstick on. Our citizens, and politicians, usually keep their predelictions private, we are not as outgoing about sex as the americans, but sexual harassment in the workplace is just as hot a topic here as there. We hold our politicians to a high standard so cavorting in the office space is fround upon. Back in 1975 another famous case of minister and staffer was one of the nails in the coffin of the infamous Whitlam government

Things have gone worse fro Barnaby he has been lampooned by John Oliver

John Oliver on Barnaby Joyce: Last Week Tonight

I think they have nailed the coffin shut

Poor old Barnaby has gone, a victim of his own actions. We take in these KIWI and they revert to their ways

https://media.scribblelive.com/2018/...7658ecedef.mp4

We put up with weeks of grandstanding in the by-election and all the while Barnaby wasn't who he said he is, and now he can join his mate Tony on the backbench for a little or a lot of caaarping

The High Court has just thrown another Senator out of parliament and the Government is favoured by the heads of four reps. If we get rid of this lot the Government might be able to get past some of the obstructionism and give the big end of town a tax cut. However By-elections are dangerous territory as they act as a referendum on government policy and you can't allow the punters to comment of what you are doing, particularly after a budget showing some new directions, and a lack of care for the unemployed