I have some advice for the Liberal Party MP’s in NSW.

I understand they are not the type of people who take advice no matter how good it is, nor are they the type of people who believe that they ever do wrong and usually only offer excuses when they do the wrong thing, which is quite often.

Given that however, I am going to offer the advice anyway in the hope that there is someone in there with enough common sense to see it is actually sound advice.

The advice is quite simple, stay away from the grog.

To some that may seem obvious and a bit petty, but let’s have a look at some of the events involving the Liberal Party in NSW and how alcohol has been a major influence.

The obvious starting point is Barry O’Farrell’s amnesia after drinking a $3,000 bottle of plonk.

For those who may have been in a cave, under a rock, or involved in deep space exploration the NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell resigned in shame on Wednesday 16th April after misleading the Independent Commission Against Corruption in regards to dealings with Nick Di Girolamo who had been lobbying for Australia Water Holdings a company he was a director of and was part owned by the Obeid family.

Barry had misled ICAC a few times with his apparent amnesia with anything Di Girolamo related, but it was the infamous $3,000 bottle of 1959 Grange that finally made him realise that he had to resign.

A Premier resigning over a bottle of grog is a first I believe. Well done to the Liberal Party on breaking new ground at last.

However, the Liberal Party boozemobile hasn’t just parked in O’Farrell’s driveway.

The Minister in charge of pubs and clubs, Hospitality Minister George Souris may have been sampling the delights of those he looked after when he was hauled into an inner city police station after allegedly performing a “gay sex act” in public. The Minister has of course not confirmed this, nor given any comment whatsoever on his alleged behaviour.

Some may remember another of O’Farrell’s front benchers who was eventually stood down for what most would deem corrupt practices in hiring mates for favours.

That Minister was Greg Pearce and his job’s for the boys corruption scandal only came to light after Mr Pearce opened himself up to scrutiny after a very public encounter with the bottle.

While the Liberal Party were voting to destroy our workers compensation rights Mr Pearce was so drunk that he had to be assisted by staffers. He was virtually carried to another members office so he could “cool off”, eventually he was helped into a car and sent home.

Mr Pearce thought it was OK to have a few drinks at a Liberal Party fundraiser, that in hindsight appears to have been a piss-up, and then stumble back to parliament to vote to destroy the lives of victims of workplace accidents.

That, to me at least is taking the piss…

Bart Bassett, the Liberal member for Londonderry who is best known for his spineless attacks on a local community group, was caught drink driving not long after his election. Bassett had a boozey dinner and consumed too much wine before hopping in the drivers seat to drive all the way across the other side of town to an outlying suburb over the legal limit.

Just recently I wrote another article that looked at how the Liberal party was addicted to liquor and gambling.

This came about after yet another scandal at ICAC was exposed that involved QLD Premier Campbell Newman and a chap by the name of Paul Nicolaou.

Paul Nicolaou is the head of the Millennium Forum who previously were the NSW Liberal Party fundraisers for election campaigns, propaganda and the like.

Paul Nicolaou is also the NSW Chief Executive of the Australian Hotels Association, the lobby group for the states pubs and clubs. This makes Nicolaou the biggest promoter of liquor in the state.

One wonders if Liberal MP’s were under the influence (pardon the pun) of this liquor industry giant and Liberal party heavyweight when debating how to deal with the violence in our inner city in part caused by binge drinking in the clubs Nicolaou represents.

The Millenium Forum due to Labor’s amendments in legislation that forbid the liquor, gambling and tobacco industries amongst other to make political donations no longer manage fundraising for the NSW Liberal Party.

They do however look after the campaign funds and fundraising for the Federal Liberal Party, effectively making Tony Abbott’s election campaign majority funded by the head of the NSW Hotels Association.

Speaking of Tony Abbott, some may recall another drink driving bust not too long ago.

Peta Credlin, Chief Of Staff to Tony Abbott and the wife of Liberal Party faceless man and Federal Director Brian Loughnane got caught showing absolute disregard for the safety of others and was caught drink driving.

Peta Credlin rocked up to court with an expensive lawyer, Tony Abbott’s media adviser, and a letter from the Attorney General George Brandis. She received no penalty unlike most other motorists who risk others lives in the same manner.

These are just a few of the alcohol related incidents that come to mind.

However when it comes to drinking responsibly and behaving appropriately the Liberals are learning their lessons from the masters.

The Liberal Party had John Elliott as its National President from 1987 to 1990.

John Elliott was also the owner and head of Carlton United Breweries amongst other things.

But Tony Abbott to his credit is clearly someone who leads the way within the Party and has given others an example to follow.

In 2009 Tony Abbott was so concerned about the economy and the stimulus package Labor put forward to save us from a recession that he handled it in the most professional way he could muster. The spending that he would spend the rest of his political career condemning is clearly something close to Abbotts heart.

So you would expect Tony Abbott to have voted against the stimulus spending in parliament, however he didn’t. In fact Abbott was so concerned he didn’t vote at all.

Instead Abbott was asleep in his office after a boozy dinner.

Tony Abbott in true style however denies he was drunk. However he did admit to drinking at the dinner. What Abbott actually stated was this;

“there’s no doubt we had a couple of bottles of wine, I wasn’t keeping count, maybe two.”

Well Tony, if you lost count at two I’d say you had more than you could handle, and if counting past two is such an issue for you, I’d suggest you are possibly in the wrong job.

Government is no place for someone with alcohol issues.

Although I would be the world’s biggest hypocrite to say those in government shouldn’t drink or be allowed to have a little too much from time to time, I think it should be avoided during work.

Just like a taxi driver guides their way through traffic, elected members of a government are supposed to guide the country through obstacles, and just like a taxi driver having a few drinks is fine, but not while working.

We need level heads in the government that guides us.

Unfortunately, that is not we have now.

 

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