Ratania
July 21st, 2009 by Anna Winter | Published in Politics | 63 Comments
Labor MP Vince Catania last night announced he was quitting the Labor party and joining the Nationals, the party whose support helped Colin Barnett become Premier after the close state election last year. A former member of the upper house, he moved to the lower house in the last election after former speaker Fred Riebeling retired.
A pull-no-punches statement from Eric Ripper under the fold described him as “an immature and petulant young man who wants an easy ride in politics” claiming that he “obviously thinks he can buy people, power and influence by running to the Nationals”.
It’s not surprising behaviour from Catania. He’s known as a rat within the party after his defection was one of the main causes of the New Right faction’s collapse. Most of his success in the Labor party was thanks to his father, and the large branch-stacking machine behind him (pdf, an entertaining expose from Liberal Senator David Johnston starting p. 65). Viewed as an inner-city parachuted candidate, he was recently “counselled” by Ripper about his lack of presence in his electorate, it’s not very surprising that he’s decided to use the Nationals recent surge in power to help him keep the seat next time.
He said that: “I think more politicians should perhaps look at their electorate first before their own way of which they can climb the ladder within their political party.” This is a very good point coming from a guy who’s in Parliament using numbers from inner-city branches and supporters of his father, the mayor of an inner-city council.
Outed by the CCC as an “ally” of Brian Burke, he now has a place in government once again. Sadly, he won’t be using that power for anything other than making sure he keeps it. This ALP member won’t miss him.
HON ERIC RIPPER MLA
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
STATEMENT TO MEDIA
TUESDAY, JULY 21 2009
Vince Catania sent his letter of resignation by fax to the State Secretary of the Labor Party Simon Mead last night after 6.30pm.
He then left a voice message on my mobile – in the knowledge that I was on leave – informing me of his intention to resign from Labor and to join the Nationals.
His actions last night were clearly those of a man more interested in his media strategy than in fronting up to his party colleagues.
On learning of his resignation, I contacted the office of the State Parliamentary Labor Party to ensure that his access to our offices at Parliament House was stopped immediately.
Today I am sure that Vince Catania will tell you that his decision is motivated by the best interests of his electorate and his loss of faith in the Labor Party.
Don’t be fooled.
This is all about Vince Catania’s crass political opportunism.
This is an act of political treachery, a gross betrayal of the people of the North West and of the Australian Labor Party.
Vince obviously thinks he can buy people, power and influence by running to the Nationals.
These are the actions of an immature and petulant young man who wants an easy ride in politics.
There is no such thing as an easy ride in politics.
Vince Catania clearly has no stomach for the hard work of Opposition.
He has no stomach for the challenges of a marginal electorate, he clearly lacks the courage to defend a marginal seat and instead he has chosen to defect to the enemy.
The people of the North West made their choice at the last election.
They voted for a Labor member.
Labor has a proud tradition when it comes to representing regional Western Australia and our regional members will continue to represent country people.
Vince Catania has betrayed his values, he has betrayed his party and he has betrayed his electorate.
These are the actions of a man who has no character, no principles and no ticker.
His colleagues are understandably angry and disappointed that a man who was given a second chance has betrayed it in such a way.
The Labor Party has worked hard to rid itself of the influence of Brian Burke and Julian Grill.
I think we have largely achieved that but Mr Grylls and Mr Barnett may now discover that the lobbyists have just pulled up a seat at their party room tables.
What Vince won’t be telling you today is that I have recently found it necessary to counsel him about his level of engagement with his marginal North West electorate.
I expressed concern about his lack of presence in his electorate and about the performance of his electorate office.
For the past few months, my colleague Jon Ford has been conducting a review of our position in the Pilbara and Kimberley in the wake of the Ray Review.
He had requested a meeting with me to discuss Vince’s poor performance.
I find Vince’s decision particularly surprising given that during the last sitting week of Parliament I had to counsel Vince against calling Brendon Grylls a liar in the Parliamentary chamber.
That would have been unparliamentary, Vince wanted to do that via repeated interjection, I had to advise him not to advance on that course of action.
Today he will sit side by side with Brendon Grylls and side on as a member of the Nationals and I call on Mr Grylls to tell the people of the North West, and indeed the people of the State, what exactly he has promised Mr Catania in return for his support.
I remember when he was the president of Young Labor and never came to any meetings, and then Young Labor passed a motion condemning him as a nincompoop. Good times.
So I’m not entirely surprised that he’s been an absentee MP. He only took a seat in the country because he couldn’t find one in the city.
Having said that, Labor had fair warning that he was a clown, and they still backed him — twice, once in the Council and once in the Assembly.
You reap what you sow.
So you used to be New Right then, Anna? ;)
This isn’t as much of a surprise as it could be… Labor MP’s up north have a habit of quitting the party and sitting as independents. Ernie Bridge and Larry Graham did it in the 90′s (interesting 2004 Stateline interview with Graham here) – now it’s the Gascoyne’s turn. On the face of it joining the Nationals looks strange, but then they’ve never had a presence up there until last year – the only weird thing is that it’s city boy Nick Catania doing it. Doesn’t quite compute… I guess he must’ve had his own sea-change. Bearing in mind the weather here and Carnarvon lately I can kinda see his point, but it’s still weird.
The Nationals started having a serious go at electorates outside the farming regions last year. It’s a clever thing to do: with the current redistribution (one vote one value), there’s only five wheatbelt / great southern seats they can win. Graham Jacobs has Eyre for as long as he wants, they have the other four, so they’re effectively at their ceiling. For their long-term strategy, they’re probably looking at picking up North West, Pilbara, Kimberley and Kalgoorlie. 2013′s a long way away, but I like their chances – North West will give them a foothold up north, and they beat the Libs to second place in Kalgoorlie and Pilbara last year. If John Bowler gets eaten by the CCC and Tom Stephens retires (he’ll have his 30 year badge by then), who knows what might happen. The more seats they have, the more chance they have of getting the balance again next time. As for Carol Martin, I wouldn’t be surpised to see her doing an Ernie Bridge and sitting as an independent. I bet she’s keeping a lazy eye on what Marion Scrymgour gets up to, as well… the Kimberley has more in common with the Territory than down south.
Also, this now means the government can get a lower house majority without Janet Woollard or John Bowler. That’s got to make them more comfortable.
Anna was never in the New Right.
Not to nit pick, but it took until you quoted another article to know where you were talking about.
This is beautiful to watch. Makes up for the Ashes and Cadel.
Hopefully now barnet can have a Shuffle and get rid of the Police Minister – he’s a goose.
Also, noted defender of the bush Warren Truss weighs in. The same guy put the hard word of Grylls not to go with Labor after the last election, because they’re the country wing of the Liberals and that sort of thing just ain’t done. He unwisely tries to get an OMFG TEH KRUDD boot in, and forgets what happened last time somebody over east tried to use WA politics for their own ends… John Howard saw the CCC scandals in 2007, went looking for a federal Labor politician to destroy and ended up with Ian Campbell’s head instead. Careful there Truss, the next member for Wide Bay will probably be a Liberal.
And it’s funny that on the WAEC Candidate List pdf he lists his home address in Canarvon.
http://www.waec.wa.gov.au/elections/state_elections/election_results/2008_State_General_Election/Candidates%20for%20web.pdf
Oh and I’m pretty sure my second cousin, who was a failed pre-selection candidate for West Swan, and who was Vince’s Campaign Manager would not be too pleased with this either.
And I hope the ALP has ensured that the appropriate ALP Database software has been removed from his Parlaiemntry Office Computers as well – there is a lot of information that would be very damaging if it landed in the Nats hands.
Anna you say that Catania was known as a rat for changing factions, then link to a Hansard extract which has “Mr Hyde won the nomination for his safe seat of
Perth by swapping from the Centre to the Left. To the Centre-Right, that’s a hanging offence.”
So is John Hyde another rat?
The ALP can’t win with this – the more they say that Catania is a creep, the more people will wonder what kind of people were happy to have him on their team.
Everyone I know says that Ripper won’t lead the ALP to the next state election, and Alannah seems happy to inform jounalists that she’s considering her options – run for state leadership, or run for a federal seat – so as long as they stay in this false position of “Ripper is our leader (for now)” they’ll look like a group of ambitious, back-stabbing individuals who can’t remember if they ever had any principles let alone clearly articulate those principles.
Good luck to Brendon Grylls – who could have ever predicted the Nationals would be doing this well?
This is ABC TV News about the Defection – Papa Nicola Catania isn’t happy about his little Bambino.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/07/21/2632599.htm
Frank, my video’s playing up – what did my local mayor say?
Something I forgot to mention before…if the Nationals get extra seats up north in 2013, not only does it increase the chance of them getting the balance of power, it increases the chance of them throwing that balance Labor’s way. If a majority of the Nationals caucus aren’t from the uber-conservative wheatbelt, then folk like Grylls and Wendy Duncan could get their way. That puts the Liberals in the uncomfortable position of not being able to have a full-blooded go at getting back seats like Moore and Blackwood-Stirling, in case they lose (or don’t gain) Perth seats, don’t get a majority and have to deal with a bigger, more Labor-friendly National party.
I like Brendon Grylls. I hope he doesn’t drop the ball in the next few years; the WA Nats could replace the Liberals as the main non-Labor party outside Perth, including the south-west, and lead the way for Nats over east like Warren Truss or the NSW branch. Not bad for a party that was meant to be wiped out by McGinty’s reforms… they read the writing on the wall.
Basically it was sad the Party didn’t stop him from leaving – or words to that effect.
You’re right about the Nats, with having a leader with a clue, they’ve reinvented themselves as a proper rurual based party, and not the Testicles of the Liberal Party.
Changing from the ALP to the Nats isn’t that big a change – moving from one lot of socialists to another.
I’ve indicated before that I think the ethics of MPs changing parties is not cut and dried – there are a lot of factors that need to be considered before making judgement on whether they should resign their seat.
From where I am sitting it looks like all those factors run against Mr Catania. I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I’m not sure there is any.
Frank, as a former WA ALP hack let me assure you that Vince Catania has never, in his political life, done anything that daddy didn’t tell him to.
The interesting thing will be to see how well the local ALP dirt machine is functioning – if they have their shit together you’ll see a raft of stories this week about exactly how much time Catania spends up in his electorate, based on a quick riffle through the travel records at Parliament House by some enterprising staffer (personally, I have a tenner that says he hasn’t spent more than two weeks up there in the whole of 2009).
If not, they ain’t gonna win the next election.
Hmm, the Western Patriot has an interview with Vince.
The letter also addresses a false assertion by Mr Ripper that Mr Catania resides outside his electorate, by reminding Ripper that he recently attended a barbecue at Mr Catania’s home in Carnarvon.
Perhaps it is because Vince bought the home so he could qualify for travel expenses when Travelling to Parliament, and maybe the BBQ was held when Catania was there for one of his occasional visits to the electorate.
http://westernpatriot.com.au/2009/07/why-labor-is-doomed-catanias-explosive-letter-to-eric-ripper-2174#comment-427
QED From little finks big finks grow.
Cheryl Kernot defects to federal ALP from Defunctocrats – good. Peter Garrett defects to federal ALP from Greenocrats – good. Some unknown WA bloke defects to local Nationalistas from ALP – bad. Very very bad.
Why the frothing and posturing over a minor state political figure who, if he was so bad in the eyes of his former party cronies, should never have been propelled into politics in the first place?
Colonel of Truth, I know that tone can be difficult to convey in the written word, but I don’t see how anything written here can be seen as frothing and posturing. As for your complaints that the people involved are “unknown”? I apologise for not living in the same state as you and for having a different state government from you. Seriously, go away if you don’t care.
Bird of paradox, as Robert says, I was never in the new right. It’s more that few people involved in factional politics respect a rat, regardless of who benefits. As for what makes a rat? I guess that ratting can be a grey area – switching factions by oneself is at one end of the spectrum, while switching factions and taking lots of numbers with you at the other. And the reasons for it matter too – whether you leave because everything turned to shit in your own faction or whether you betray your former colleagues to get ahead.
In this case I think he’s a dirty rat but I’m not angry, ’cause yay! he’s gone.
Russell, that’s a good point you made. That can sometimes be one of the benefits of losing an election: the power-hungry hacks move on and we get rid of a lot of dross.
Colonel,
Kernot (for all that I dislike her intensely) at least resigned her seat upon her defection. And Garrett took no Parliamentary representation with him when he joined the ALP. If he’s been a Greens party member and MP, the betrayal would have been equivalent.
Catania took Labor’s money and support, got elected and has now shat on the party. Not cool.
Luke #19, also worth noting that Garrett wasn’t a member of any party when he joined the ALP, and hadn’t been since the NDP days of the mid-1980s.
WA INC indeed. And in QLD we very much have Labor INC, alive and well. And it has gone well beyond the cabinet table…
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25819503-601,00.html
Don’t really see what WA Inc’s got to do with it….apart from Ripper seemin to resort to the time-honoured Perth political tactic of yelling, “Look – Brian Burke! Boo!” whenever he’s run out of points to make.
The Libs in the Election Campaign went to great lengths to link Burke as still being part of Labor, and it is the height of hypocrisy for the Liobs to do that again now they’ve got someone who was openly caught on tape by the CCC talking to Burke in the Govt Ranks.
Oh and Tony Barrass makes the point as well.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25817977-5006789,00.html
C’mon Frank – the ALP had lost a couple of Ministers thrugh the CCC taps of Burke after Carps had let him back into the fold. To say they went to great lengths is over-inflating the Libs efforts and under representing the ALP’s culpability.
C’mon Frank – the ALP had lost a couple of Ministers thrugh the CCC taps of Burke after Carps had let him back into the fold. To say they went to great lengths is over-inflating the Libs efforts and under representing the ALP’s culpability
You don;t get it – The Libs had ads depicting the shadow of Burke. To do so in 2013 with Catania on Board smacks of Hypocricy and Double Standards.
Itis a FACT. Of course the ALP got a few hits, but for the Libs to claim the high moral ground while openly welcoming someone who was asked by Burke to “Snoop Around” is proof that Vince will be more of a liabilty, than an Asset.
Bahh, Blockquotes aren’t working for me.
What’s more – can someone please explain to me why speaking on the telephone to He-Who-Apparently-Must-Not-Be-Named is any kind of offence?
Remember, that was in the period before the CCC revelations – so its a bit post-facto to say that Catania is somehow morally compromised over it.
Read the Barrass Article, All is revealed there. Also Two Words – WA Inc and Burke’s role.
That’s four words, Frank, and the WA Inc thing isn’t exactly the goldmine of anti-Labor, anti-Burke facts most would suppose.
Tut, tut. Someone commenting on this thread isn’t disclosing that he is a WA Labor factional hack.
And it ain’t me – I’m just a Rank & File Swan Hills Member.
Oh and the Western POatriot are really getting stuck into the Party as well.
And re those Emails Simon Mead rekeased you can read them here.
http://www.watoday.com.au/news/2009/ALPemail/ALPemail.pdf
No, it ain’t you Frank.
It’s not surprising that The Western Patriot is defending Catania, given that Nathan Hondros is running it.
Tonight’s ABC Perth TV News re Catania owing $75,000
http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/07/22/2633704.htm
And John Theodorsen, who ironically was my Booth Captain at Upper Swan Primary School at the last State Election.
Oh and the ALP are perfectly entitled to recoup monies spent on Catania’s Election Expenses according to the Cadidate’s Pledge.
http://www.wa.alp.org.au/download/now/final_rules_2008___for_print_16_09_08.pdf
Anna #18. “I don’t see how anything written here can be seen as frothing and posturing.”
Fine – maybe, as you say, the tone is difficult to convey. I read “This is an act of political treachery, a gross betrayal…” and “He has no stomach for the challenges of a marginal electorate, he clearly lacks the courage to defend a marginal seat and instead he has chosen to defect to the enemy” and “…a man who has no character, no principles and no ticker” etc etc as being just a tad frothy. Mea culpa.
“I apologise for not living in the same state as you and for having a different state government from you.” Accepted. :-)
“Seriously, go away if you don’t care.” Happily, even though I do. I note no comment on my “…if he was so bad in the eyes of his former party cronies, (he) should never have been propelled into politics in the first place?” It looks like another case of Mal Colstonitis, which I do not believe does the Australian democratic process any good in the eyes of citizens of any political persuasion.
“he clearly lacks the courage to defend a marginal seat”
Now there’s an interesting thing. He still will be defending a marginal seat next time, but now it’s one where he needs to get a swing towards him (on a party basis) to keep it. That’s plenty courageous.
Question for the Labor hacks. The decent thing might be for Catania to resign his seat and recontest it at a by-election, but do you lot really want another by-election? ;) Between finding a new candidate at short notice and trying to sell an opposition that’s about as popular as the Fremantle Dockers, it’d be very tough to win.
I suspect Robert thinks he’s talking about me…but given that I live in Melbourne and hold no lected or paid Party position here or in WA I’d be fairly confident he’s mistaken.
Agree with Frank re Nathan Hondros’ false piety though.
Western Patriot have another article on this. Again, a bit Landeryou-ish, but raises a couple of interesting points – particularly calls bullshit on whoever said Catania was unelectable. (Another point of theirs could be answered by the obvious fact the party have a dirt file on him waiting for use, just the same as they’ve got a dirt file on every party member up to and including the leader. No surprises there, WP.)
Labor engages hypocrisy hyperdrive in war on Catania
My lord…that linked article is just Chutzpah Central. For Nathan Hondros to tip a bucket on Jon Ford is highly amusing, given that Hondros was Ford’s chief of staff for years.
The reality is, both of them are useless…two bald men fighting over a comb. And Simon Mead doesn’t exactly represent an improvement in the competence stakes either – the situation is so bad that the National ALP is considering Federal oversight of the WA office and operations, if not full-blown intervention.
The WA ALP has for years now rewarded incompetnece, as long as it comes wrapped in either State Executive votes or loyalty of the craven, backside-licking variety. I submit the following names as supporting evidence – Saffioti, Mead, Catania, Carey, Pratt, Campbell-Fraser, Murphy, Ford, Ellery, Talbot, Quirke…
The sad thing is, there ARE actually some talented, savvy people in the party, with a range of different skills needed to win back Government and then keep it. Wyatt and Papalia are very good MPs, Federally so are Evans, Gray and Parke, Tinley was and hopefully is a great candidate, the unions throw up such good operators as Bullock, Kelly and at a lower level, Wilson and Harris….
What WA Labor needs to do is to stop entertaining the notion that internal critcism is evil and must be punished through excommunication. It’s exactly that thinking that led the Premier’s Office to blow the ’08 campaign and it’s still doing incalculable damage. To borrow a Lathamism, the party’s been reduced to a conga line of suckholes…and for all that Catania’s been a dirty rat who needs to be dealt with, he may have a point about the party’s capacity to hear and act upon dissenting voices from its own ranks.
Well Vince’s predecesser is keen to recontest the seat.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/23/2634141.htm
Patriot – most of the names you mention are reasonable, but Campbell-Fraser? Please. He has no numbers or votes and doesn’t even belong to a faction. Whether you think he does a good job or not (I think he does) you can’t suggest that he got where he is because of his ability to deliver votes.
As for the internal criticism – I agree. But that doesn’t mean I think that’s why Catania left. The guy has never had a policy thought in his life. No involvement with policy committees, as Robert said at the start of the thread, no commitment to even turning up to things until he got his seat in Parliament.
I have a lot more respect for the people like MacTiernan who is in a place where she could just sit back and enjoy the safety of being a basically untouchable backbencher, but instead is trying to do something about fixing the party from the inside. Sure she also has big ambitions for herself, but she’d probably find those easier to achieve without biting the hand that fed her.
Yeah! Leave Bruce out of it. Just because he supports St Kilda doesn’t mean he is all bad.
Anna,
Bruce might not have numbers, but he is an exponent of the ‘kick-down, kiss-up’ school of thought, and a bit part of the losses I mentioned. I do, however, have more time for him than for the rest of that list, I have to admit.
I’d rather him than Mead, for example.
Hey, I live and work in Melbourne, too, Luke. But you didn’t always live here, did you?
No Robert – I grew up in Adelaide :-)
Anna,
Just re-reading your comment about Catania. Hey may never have been a policy wonk, but I reckon he may just have some valuable insights on how Labor is travelling in the regions, and how marginal seat voters are thinking. And I wouldn’t be surprised if his views didn;t get much of a hearing.
It’s not about being a policy wonk, Patriot. I’m arguing that he never did a damn thing for the party at all except for things that got him votes.
Yeah, he may well have some ideas about the regions now that knowing that is crucial to him keeping his seat. But that doesn’t mean it’s in any way a principled decision for him to switch parties. Because I somehow doubt that if he had received a fair hearing and the party still decided to disagree with his analysis that he would have stayed with the ALP. It’s a post-facto pile of bullshit.
It’s true that the WA Labor party has been especially bad about hearing criticism internally and externally lately. But “you should support royalties for regions because the people in the regions won’t vote for us if we speak against it” is neither insightful nor driven by principle.
Why are you so reluctant to tell people you were a staffer in the former WA Labor Government, Luke? Don’t you think it’s relevant background to your comments?
Indeed, and why aren’t Messrs Hondros and Theodorsen doing the same at the bottom of their articles as most people will not be going to the about us page.
And I note Inside Cover in the West are publishing daily quotes from young Vince where he is not so kind and charitable to his new political buddies :-)
In light of the above, allow me to declare former roles in the WA Labor governments from 2004-2007.
It’s good to see Labor people in WA getting a bit vexed about this and being shy to air a bit of dirty laundry in the process. Frank’s comments about the security of Labor resources is a good point. We can only hope that the appropriate steps have been taken.
Anna, I do wonder though if Vince can really be given the credit for being one of the ‘main causes’ for the collapse of the New Right. Perhaps it was only in a parliamentary sense that they retained some influence, but they certainly seemed to me to slide towards diminution rather than collapse. As, for that matter, did his subsequent choice of faction and mine, the Centre Left (or Centre Right, depending on who you talk to).
Perhaps Patriot can confirm or deny if s/he’s the Labor Insider whose comments graced crikey.com in the past few days? There seems to be some similarity in points and phrases.
That should read ‘not being shy’ in the second para.
If everyone has to disclose their status as hacks before they contribute to any given Labor Party pileon thread, things will get a lot less interesting in the Australian internet.
I’ve no fingers in any WA pies, I’m just saying.
[coughs]
“It’s true that the WA Labor party has been especially bad about hearing criticism internally and externally lately. But “you should support royalties for regions because the people in the regions won’t vote for us if we speak against it” is neither insightful nor driven by principle.”
Anna – I don’t think that’s what he’s said. He says, and just about everybody I know agrees, that non-metropolitan W.A. had been neglected and is entitled to the Royalties for Regions money. The ALP is too dumb to remind us of the money they spent in the regions, so now they come across as a party that will starve regional W.A. should they stumble back into government.
As someone who voted ALP most of my life I can tell you that I don’t think my priciples have changed. The ALP seems to have changed. Did all the ex-ALP voters of Fremantle change their principles when they voted the ALP out?
I was reading in the latest Farm Weekly that Catania sees the Nationals, with the balance of power, as the party that will keep the other two bastards honest – neither the ALP or the Lib politicians as having much in the way of integrity. More and more people probably agree with him.
Rewi,
Vince certainly walked some significant numbers (enough to get an MP up) over the fence when he left – and he was, arguably, the first to break the New Right solidarity when he did so.
Liam:
It’s not so much about everyone having to disclose, it’s about Luke being deliberately disingenuous about his interests in the matter, despite a number of the people on thread knowing exactly who he is.
Oh Dear, another Ghost from Vincent’s recent past :-)
http://www.wapou.asn.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=61
As regional ALP rank and file in the North we are never impressed that factional deals use Mining and Pastoral as a dumping ground for city folk who cannot get preselection for a city seat.
Catania and Archer turned out to be poor choices for the party. Catania used the M & P seat to conjour a claim to Northwest. We know he does not live there and he has now revealed his true colours.
Bullock in Mining and Pastoral might have the best of intentions but won’t be able to shake the perception that she is a city person. Hopefully Mead’s promise that city appointments to regional seats is to end will come to fruition.
Russell’s point that Labor undersells it’s delivery of investment in the regions is valid, RfR is not much more than a publicity machine for the Nationals.
Ok, I’ll remember.
Interesting comment from Joe Spagnolo from the Sunday Times about the real reason for Catania defecting – and it ain’t Ripper’s letter :-)
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,25834932-5005374,00.html
Robert/crankynick,
I reject the suggestion that I have ‘interests’….I don’t live or work in WA, and to be frank couldn’t really care less what Vince Catania does with his time any more. He ratted, sure, but life will go on.
I have a few views about Labor policy and general politcal strategy, but what job I do or don’t have is irrelevant. I’m not pushing a candidate or a policy, and if you want to argue the points I’m making fine. But who I worked or didn’t work for isn’t really relevant, is it?
If I was Vince’s current staffer, or worked in Rippers office now or aspired to do so, that’d be different. But I don’t so it isn’t.
I’ll be happy to disclose all my positions when everyone else does :-)
I will say, however, that it’s unfortunate that Helen Bullock’s seen as a city person. As a qualified, experienced practising accountant who was based on-site in a fly-in-fly-out role for a mining company for 4 or 5 years prior to her election, she’s pretty well connected and experienced to speak for the region she represents.
Call me cynical, but does the timing of the revamp of Members Equity Stadium for use by Soccer and Rugby, despite only months earlier dropping a similsr pgrade of Subiaco Oval due to the lack of funds sound awfully suspicious since young Vince has defected to the Nats, and that Members Equity Stadium is in the Town of Vincent, where Old Man Nicola is the Mayor ?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/26/2636548.htm
It was more your discussion about who-said-what-to-Burke-and-when that made me think you should be a bit more up front, Luke, considering where you worked when the CCC started looking at it. And now that you’re spruiking for Bullock, another of your jobs becomes relevant.
Also, it’s worth reminding people about the “no sockpuppets” rule — especially when one character is presenting himself as a “well placed WA Labor insider” and the other is claiming to just be a bloke from Adelaide who now lives in Melbourne and has nothing to do with WA politics.
crankynick,
Agreed. Perhaps it’s just semantics, perhaps it’s just that I’d prefer to think that he’d not achieved anything of significance, other than achieving preselection, rather than give him the credit for reshaping internal Labor politics.
A “Woe is Me Story by Mrs Catania about being a “Political widow”, which is quite disingeneous as she is not the first, nor last Poltical Spouse to deal with this.
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=146&ContentID=157978
Stateline Transcript of Interview with Brendan Grylls and his new recruit.
http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/wa/content/2006/s2637150.htm