We Don’t Need A Kangaroo Court To Decide That Lidia Thorpe Is Unfit To Stay In Parliament
The jury’s in…
Well, it would be because there is no jury. What I’m trying to say is that the decision has been made by the people who matter which – as I am sure you know is the Federal Coalition. Lidia Thorpe has failed to declare a conflict of interest.
Peter Dutton has led the charge, announcing that Senator Thorpe must leave Parliament because ‘you can’t receive those briefings during the day and then hang out, you know, in nice circumstances of a night-time with a bikie.”
Now some Victorians may wonder why Mr Dutton was silent about the Victorian Liberal leader sharing lunch with someone who has alleged links to organised crime, but to be fair, Mr “Family” Guy assures that he had no idea who was at the lunch and if he’d known he’d have made sure it was a lot more discreet.
Anyway, there’s no suggestion that Senator Thorpe actually leaked any information to Dean Martin who – for the benefit of older readers – is not the same Dean Martin who used to be Jerry Lewis sidekick in movies until they went their separate ways. However, when one is in certain positions, there should be no potential conflict of interest that isn’t declared. Once unit’s declared people can make up their own minds. For example, if I were a minister and I’d happened to get one of my staffers pregnant, it’s fine to get her a promotion as long as I say something along the lines of: “She and I have been having quite a good time of it on the office desk but I think it’d be good if she moved somewhere else so I could actually get some work done.”
Senator Thorpe’s problem wasn’t that she had a brief relationship with a bikie; it was the fact that she didn’t declare it while she was serving on committees that were hearing sensitive information.
Of course, some of you are wondering how the Liberals can be so critical of the senator’s behaviour when they’ve been so firm on insisting that the proposed Integrity Commission shouldn’t be allowed to trash people’s reputations by holding public hearings. I believe the term, “Kangaroo Court” has been used on a number of occasions, demonstrating a certain lack of understanding of what the term actually means.
For the benefit of everyone, here is a definition from one online dictionary: an unofficial court held by a group of people in order to try someone regarded, especially without good evidence, as guilty of a crime or misdemeanour.
It would seem strange to call a legally constituted body which has its powers strictly defined and which cannot actually do more than recommend possible further action, a kangaroo court, but the Liberals have been known to do some very strange things.
Take Gladys Berijiklian, who suddenly resigned, even though “she hadn’t done anything wrong” apart from fall for a boundless cad who seduced her into diverting money in his electorate. This was rather strange behaviour, but perhaps she felt she was slipping as the kangaroo lawyer who questioned her had to constantly remind her of things that she’d forgotten to do, such as answer the question he just asked. With her faculties slipping, she may have felt it time to go while she was still on top.
It’s not like she did anything like Lidia Thorpe because her partner wasn’t a bikie. He just drove tractors very badly, often running over iPads and the like.
And then there was that time that they paid $30 million for land that was only valued at $3 million. There was no conflict of interest there.
Neither was there a conflict of interest when Dyson Heydon declared that he was unbiased and the fact that he was going to speak at a Liberal fundraiser didn’t make him ineligible to head the Royal Commission Into Embarrassing Labor And The Unions.
And when Scotty the Virtuous Globalist had his QAnon mate staying at Kirribilli House, well that was no problem because we all knew about it… eventually. And just because your best mate is head of QAnon Australia, well, you’re not responsible for anything that your mates do or say. Or as someone said about Peter Dutton, “Don’t judge him by what he’s said and done!”
You see, the Liberals believe in the individual, while Labor believes in the collective. This is why what anything a Liberal does is just an isolated thing, while anything Labor does is part of the whole left. And we can include the Greens in that because, even though the relationship between Labor and the Greens is more toxic than the one between Turnbull and Morrison, they’re apparently a “coalition”…
No, whatever criticism you may want to make about the Liberal Party, you certainly can’t accuse them of failing to adopt a consistent stand on things.
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Return to home pageWell, the Greens are true pure evil and we must be rid of them any way we can.
Conservative confected outrage, all synthetic.., is a Dutton something like Nauru once was, all coated in dried SHIT?
What is wrong with “bikies” anyhow? Why does choosing a motor bike as a means of transport rather than a car or a private plane affect someone’s reputation? Even belonging to a club which has as its main purpose riding, and repairing bikes, drinking too much and occasional sexual antics, is not an automatic indicator of untrustworthyness
An interest in etymology naturally leads to the question of why the word kangaroo [court] is the preferred choice for this type of prejudiced rush to judgement without due process or legal redress for the accused, generally assumed to be guilty rather than innocent, and punished as rapidly and severely as possible.
The term is not confined to the southern antipodes, apparently arising in the USA in the 19th C, based on the similitude of a leaping ‘roo to the leaps in judicial proceedings. Why they didn’t choose one of their own animals, or another country’s is anyone’s guess. Other contenders might have included cats, hares (and rabbits), lemurs, antelope, goats, frogs & toads also, fleas, grasshoppers, dolphins… the list is extensive.
A personal preference here might focus on either flea or grasshopper court… both creatures being cosmopolitan rather than confined. I think the Australian marsupial has been unfairly singled out for pejorative association with one of mankind’s more unpleasant behaviours.
It’s not a good look for Thorpe or the Greens.
No question that she should have declared it but, at the same time, there’s no evidence of any malfeasance. Perhaps the same penalty the Beetrooter copped (someone please remind me what that was … there was some penalty, wasn’t there?) and a stern note to not ever do anything like that again.
Spot on. Had similar thoughts myself.
Nobody saying how long ago he dissociated himself from the Rebels but he apparently ain’t at the time of their brief romance. I also wonder at what point of a four month relationship do you decide it’s a thing and you should log it? I think the woman is a bit twitchy, but don’t think this is a hanging offence. And anything Dutton says should be treated with contempt, or ignored. Oh, and nice one Rossleigh.
Nailed it!
Just a nasty beat up from MSM, including the ABC.
The modern loonies have plagiarised the green’s concept.
ps
In Australia ‘bikies’ have the stigma of being the symbols of harley thugs. Whilst bikers are just riders of bikes.
The septics user bikers as we use bikies, so it wont be long till we follow with confusion.
It should be walkers or buses in the cbd 9 to 9. Delivery vans and bikes out side those hours.
Thorpe has only been in parliament for a few months ; she’s a ‘new chum’ on a learning curve and should not be sitting on a committee dealing with security matters and confidential briefings.
There is a process and it’s not being followed. She should be in parliament for at least one term before being placed on any committee.
TM, that’s a very good point.
I assume a problem arises when a tiny party has a sudden increase in parliamentary seats and demands a greater say in the affairs of state, but I think your rule should still apply.
Once again Rossleigh you have nailed it. The COALition is only consistent in their inconsistency
Take our local Beetrooter, the adulterous, alcoholic, amoral representative of the Nazional$ in New England. Having been overpaid for his survey work in the previous COALition misgovernment he has also given SANTOS a huge leg-up with the extension of the the financially inviable Northern Inland Railway (NIR) from Toowoomba to the Gladstone CSG Export Port ….. ALL AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE!!!!!
Naturally it is only a coincidence that Beetrooter owns ”grazing properties” over CSG deposits within about 20 km of the NIR track route …..
But how could this be improper?? For that answer you would have to make inquiries at the Tamworth Branch of the Nazional$ Party that espouses ”family values” in the media and practices anything but in reality.
From the outside, looking in, it’s hard to know “who, what and why” is Lidia Thorpe, albeit she has variously been elected. Before and even now, what’s the point of research? She doesn’t appear to have enough accumulated substance – just stuff flung willy-nilly about in the hope of feeding green shoots or making a mould. Or so the story appears to be shaped.
What! Fecundity – a boyfriend! Oh yes! Such fertile ground for the oxygen starved MSM and LNP – masters of willy-nilly. Smitten by reflections of their own m.o., they have near at hand all the adjectives of high-dudgeon to broadcast – insert name [here] and let it rip. Such is substance since Adam was a boy – never mind the due processes of parliament. Love the article.
Dutton should throw his hat into the ring for PM of Little Britain.If they’re entertaining the exhumation of Bojo,maybe they wouldn’t notice an upstart thug from the colonies…at least for 45 days.One thing you could never accuse Spudley of,is ever having an original thought.Must be a former walloper thing.Who the fuck’s Lidia Thorpe? Any relation to Ian?
Or is this just Labor jumping on the opportunity to bag the Greens,their main opposition?Hard to imagine Labor playing politics.
Maybe she should use Gladys’s excuse. Harry, I didn’t notice it was Labor making the noise. Mainly Media & Opposition.
“They All Do It” is always a lame argument, Rossleigh. To maintain our respect, Thorpe should have gone above and beyond. Indeed, she probably should have recused herself. By any old pub test, she has made herself eminently fair game.
Surely this relatively minor scandal (until we know more) just goes to show that The Greens have all the qualities to mix it with the “big boys”! [sarcasm]
In a bizarre way, it might possibly take the edge of the elitist inner city hippy moniker everyone just loves to attach to them. It would be “funny” if this incident broadens their appeal. (joke)
yes its amazing how having sex with an employee which leads to divorce in the ” moral camp” is not a hanging crime yet briefly dating a bikie, who i never heard of before, is just so salacious. Got to get your priorities right, ah dutton?