Jackie Kelly - Dancing on Thin Ice

Jackie Kelly - now there's a strange case. They think Barnaby Joyce is a tad fractious, but Kelly has, since leaving the Federal Cabinet (largely on the basis of restrictions on childcare that her own government were responsible for), spent more time battling her own side than the Opposition. Indeed, her comments on childcare issues a few months back essentially agreed that the Opposition's policy on this issue is superior to that of the Government.

Today, it's her description of Peter Costello as `a toff' who perpetuates the image of the snotty Born to Rule Liberal that has been attracting attention. Now, I'm not one to suggest that people intimately involved in political parties should keep their mouth shut when they think things are wrong. This is how we stop things like Groupthink from occurring. But Kelly's comments are quite bizzare - you might say non-strategically combative. Every man and his dog knows that Costello will take the leadership if and when Howard finally buggers off. Kelly has said she would resign if this occurred, but would she? And if she did, how would her constituents regard such a move?

What I'd be very interested in is exactly how Kelly is perceived in her local electorate, the marginal seat of Lindsay - one of the seats that make up the much-overstated Liberal takeover of Western Sydney. Such bombast may be interpreted as the actions of a Joyce-style maverick, scorning the minutiae of the parliamentary process to Fight For the Little People. However, it may also be interpreted as a pollie going a bit flaky. Kelly complains about her party being interpreted as `pearls and twin set'. Well, what do you expect, Jackie? This is a party which would sell its own mother if an economic rationalist argument could be found for it. If you want strong social policy, you're going to have to join another party.

Kelly happily admits to having no respect for the party room process, and only attending party room meetings intermittently. She is still, to my knowledge, planning to continue her stint on `Dancing on Ice' rather than return to Parliament this week (someone who watches this godawful piece of guff should feel free to correct me - perhaps she's already been voted off). Perhaps this does bring her closer to her electorate. We all know more attention (and respect) is paid to winners of reality shows than to politicians. Yet these same constituents should realise that while Kelly talks the talk, she doesn't appear to want to walk the walk.

And yet, she has stated her intention to run for the next election. It's all very odd. Here's hoping that a decent Labor candidate is chosen to run against her. To make the first of the Federal election predictions - I'll eat my hat if she manages to hold on to this seat.