A-Fussin' and A-Fightin'

I missed a golden opportunity to report on the Joe Tripodi - Andrew Fraser fracas almost live on my blog, but alas, I have had the busiest week in memory and didn't have time to note it down. Hence, here we are several days later.

It should say something that the first thing plenty of Labor people secretly wondered was whether Tripodi - an eminently thumpable pollie - was actually biffed by someone on the other side of politics or someone from his own side. Personally, I think it's a bit of a shame that Andrew Fraser - though he himself a right wing twit - has been pressured to step down from the front bench, as he was clearly goaded and bullied into making the extreme reaction that he did. Sure, trying to throttle someone is not appropriate behaviour in parliament, but we should not sit back and accept bullying just because it is a less visible form of aggressive intimidation.

We make much of our high-falutin Australian democracy, yet we seem content to let a very poor substitute for the concept pass for a fair and balanced parliamentary system. The fact that Barnaby Joyce was ostracised for his floor crossing, after making a decision of conscience that he believed would better represent his constituents, says it all really.