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I Have No Qualifications But What the Heck !

I have just been reading about the bizarre goings on in the WA parliament and the barefaced lies told by former Labor MP Barry Urban who was forced to resign before they expelled him and then his replacement, Colleen Yates, who was to stand in the by-election for the state seat of Darling Range, who also sought to deceive the electors and the parliament about her credentials.

First, Barry Urban who had claimed that he held a university degree obtained from the University of Leeds in the UK : that was a lie and Urban not only mislead Parliament and the electorate about his qualifications, he sought to deceive a parliamentary committee by providing a forged degree from the University of Leeds. It appears that Urban had been an English copper in a previous life – he would now be classed as a toe-rag I think is the term. He was then spotted wearing an English police service medal during an ANZAC day parade : he wasn’t entitled to that medal and had bought it online.

As he resigned from parliament before being expelled he is reported to have said : “I am paying a hefty price for my mistakes.”

So, then to his pre-selected replacement, Colleen Yates, who was about to present herself to the WA electorate when an astute journalist decided to run a fairly superficial check on the qualifications she had listed for herself online. They included an MBA from the University of WA on her LinkedIn profile and a Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Architecture from Washington University, among other accomplishments. All turned out to be fake : she had no tertiary qualifications whatsoever. Ms Yates resigned on Friday as Labor’s candidate for Darling Range after admitting to “minor mistakes” on her LinkedIn social media profile.

So many questions arise from these disclosures ranging from the very poor candidate checking procedures within the WA Labor Party to the quality of people putting themselves forward to serve their communities. But, what is quite startling is that when they are caught out they use terms like : “I am paying a hefty price for my mistakes” and reluctant admissions of “minor mistakes”.

In both cases these people use the term ‘mistake’ to explain their propensity to lie and deceive and, turning to the dictionary I find that mistake is defined as an action, decision, or judgment that produces an unwanted or unintentional result. Well, there certainly was an unintended result : they got caught out !

But what I’m not hearing is an apology for misleading and deceiving their political party, and the Australian public. OK this was WA but if two candidates for the same seat both turn out to be lying toads what are the odds spread across all parties, federal and state, nationally : those of you with a mathematical bent may be able to calculate those odds but it can’t be looking good.

Come the next election, I may just become a fake elector and tell everybody that I voted when in fact I had drawn something rude on the ballot paper !

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12 comments

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  1. Josephus

    You cannot sink lower than these fraudsters. Why aren’t they being prosecuted? Does anyone care? When I worked at a University, we checked student work for plagiarism and for other dishonesties; penalties were severe. Why are these idiots above the law? Much more of this and there well may be right wing revolution a la 1930s.

  2. Wam

    There are advantages in putting LLB (unfinished) as it suggest you have some intelligence? She forgot the rider. The deceit is within themselves and once perpetrated it must be sustained.
    We had a tv presenter who made the olympic squad but not the team. It was just a little step to agree with the clp idiots who couldn’t differentiate between sqad and team. Sadly once said it was impossible to retract and for years the lie persisted till some disgruntled journo exposed the lie. It was awful because by then he belived his own lie.
    Usually it takes a couple of months with the canberra sychophants before the chest puffs with self importance and the personal belief-lying begins. These labor twits, like the those arseholes who knew they were dual citizens, have trashed the labor brand already dented by holiday rorts.

  3. babyjewels10

    I’m told if we pay politicians peanuts, we get monkeys. But it seems the more we pay, the more crooks are attracted to the job.

  4. Kaye Lee

    Ted Mack said….

    “As things stand politics in Australia is now the province of a political class that now offers a lifetime career path in federal and state parliaments, the public services and quangos. Entrance to this world often involves nepotism and cronyism. There can be few other legitimate jobs with salary packages over $300,000 that can often be obtained with virtually no experience and qualifications and little restrictions on second jobs or holidays.

    Equating integrity with paying more money, flies in the face of history. By paying politicians starting salary packages of over $300,000, more people are attracted who could not get that salary level elsewhere. In fact people pursuing material gain should be discouraged from entering politics.

    There is certainly no evidence that the massive increases of salary packages in recent years has increased benefits to the public or improved the quality of members or ministers compared to governments of the past. Far from paying peanuts and getting monkeys, paying more peanuts seems to attract gorillas.”

    https://parkesfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hporation2013.pdf

  5. Jack Russell

    Fact:

    In the old CES job search folders, the required experience/qualifications for Politician was listed as … None.

    Hands up if you’re surprised!

  6. Terence Mills

    What seems to be happening is that we are attracting, in many cases, the wrong sort of people to the featherbedding of a political life and once there they are hard to get rid of : for example Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce, neither have a contribution to make but realize that the longer they hold on the better the result, superannuation wise.

  7. Andrew J. Smith

    It’s called PR or personal selling; it seems acceptable nowadays (till found out).

  8. Kaye Lee

    Tony Abbott already has a very sizable pension for life. He is unemployable and just can’t stand the thought of being irrelevant. (mind you, we thought he was irrelevant at uni 40 years ago and he ended up PM – that STILL flabbergasts me)

  9. Rod Stebbing

    The art of big-noting, of which make believe qualifications are but one of its forms, is (and unhappily has been for many a long year) alive and well in our country. Often displayed and often recorded as just plain bullsh*t

  10. Wam

    The politician’s qualifications are being able to convince a couple of dozen diehards for endorsement. A difficult task. It usually requires polling and associated party heavyweight ‘bribery’. It helps if you have private school education and tertiary quals, especially if you lack the below belt dangley bits.
    My darling went down that road and ended up being beaten by an idiot but he was a tv autocue twit with good polling. Eventually he served time for misappropriation.

  11. Peter F

    Kaye: ‘we thought he was irrelevant ……. 40 years ago’. You were correct, but few people realise the fact. History will, unless written by him.

  12. margcal

    “But what I’m not hearing is an apology …..”

    But who apologises these days when caught out?!
    What people do is go on the attack, be it for a minor infraction or the biggest lie any Murdoch stooge or politician (tautology there??) cares to tell.
    No one apologises unless backed into the tightest corner and then the apology is as insincere as all get up.

    Once again, pacé Mr Lord’s piece today.

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