Politics

Now the bad news: Brough luck, Malcolm

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Malcolm’s fabled bad luck continues.

A minister he didn’t want in the first place, Jamie Briggs, was forced to resign after admitting to having groped in "a crowded bar in Hong Kong" an attractive, young female staffer. A second minister, Mal Brough, whom Malcolm had resolutely defended only weeks ago regarding his dubious associations with former Speaker Peter Slipper's sexual harassment accuser James Ashby, has resigned, or "stood aside", also.

This follows days of "only the good news" reports of bushfires and floods and an "exciting time to be Australian" by a blithe and beaming prime minister, and calls for Tony Abbott to return to his ministry, or Barnaby Joyce to replace Mal Brough and then, as deputy prime minister, Warren Truss.

One shouln’t get too over-excited by this. A minister fondling a female staffer is as old, as news, as John Gorton and Ainsley Gotto. A Minister covering this up as old as Ben Chifley and Phyllis Donnelly. A minister loyal to his friend, or staffer, as old as Petrov, or Fergin O’Sullivan. All that is different this time is how quickly it has all occurred.

What can the "virtuous" Turnbull do about it? Can he let Abbott back in the tent? Unlikely. Can he praise Dyson Heydon for his "righteous" exposure of the "union rorter" Shorten? It’s doubtful.

No. He can be loyal, as Abbott was with Credlin and Loughnane. He can stick to the plan altogether and look a fucking fool. Can he demand that Shorten resign his position, as he did, once, of Rudd and Swan over UteGate? Unwise. He may be in big trouble, altogether, now as he was then.

This is a government of criminal tendency and it will soon be known to be like that, and on its way down, with Turnbull, his chute in flames, plunging after it.

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Find out more about Mal Brough's involvement in the Peter Slipper affair by ordering Ashbygate in paperback or eBook by clicking HERE.

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