The Buswell-Carles affair

I mentioned yesterday there have been two larger-than-life stories in the news this week.

One concerned the rugby league salary cap scandal; the other involved Western Australia’s (former) Treasurer Troy Buswell and his affair with Greens MP Adele Carles.

I don’t need to comment on the Buswell affair. The facts are clear and the public interest issue (as opposed to public interest=curiosity) has been defused now that Premier Colin Barnett forced Mr Buswell’s resignation.

Mr Buswell’s checkered career includes other incidents such as:

• Sniffing the chair of one of his staffers, writhing around in mock sexual ecstasy, when serving as opposition leader;
• Snapping the bra of a Labor Party staffer;
• Grabbing at the genitals of a male colleague in parliament while appearing to be intoxicated;
• False travel claims.

It’s not true that he “beat the bejesus out of a quokka”, as fellow blogger Matt Hayden conceded.

Mr Buswell is 10 months older than me. Most of the media has reported his age as 43, but according to Wikipedia his birthday is March 19, 1966, which makes him 44 according to my calculations.

The only specific comment I will make on Mr Buswell (left) is that he looks much older than me (right), even if I do say so myself.

My other general comment is to applaud blogger Andrew Landeryou for breaking the story of the Carles affair on March 24.

Ms Carles originally denied it when the rumors were put to her. It took the Perth media four weeks to flush out the facts and most were less than generous in acknowledging Landeryou.

The affair itself is not a crime, of course.

Mr Barnett said yesterday Mr Buswell would not have been sacked for the affair alone, which he described as “very poor judgment”. But the misuse of taxpayer funds for a hotel room and ministerial cars was “the final straw” after the previous indiscretions.