Not so wise, Guy

OPPOSITION Leader Matthew Guy enjoyed a good week in our region last week.

He gave a speech at a Committee for Geelong function at Kardinia Park introducing well-received plans for a Greek-style waterfront redevelopment for our city if elected.

But that must feel like a glimmer of success from a long time ago for Mr Guy.

And now his future fortunes have become tarnished by another dinner — an evening at Melbourne restaurant the Lobster Cave in the company of, among others, alleged mafia boss Tony Madafferi (and, incidentally, older brother of Gary Sr — Geoff Ablett).

This is a type of story that fits nicely into the genre `the politician and the pariah’. They happen to all sides of politics and involve all sorts of pariahs.

They are nice “gotcha” moments for us media types who the powerful increasingly keep at arms length as they try and peddle sanitised versions of themselves to the public.

But often they don’t mean much more than the assembled facts. Is Matthew Guy a paid up sleeper member of the Cosa Nostra? Of course not. (Although his fruit-&-veg industry dinner companion Frank Lamattina is a Liberal party donor.)

How this incident imperils Mr Guy’s election chances and even leadership position is in the way it reflects on his judgment and affirms a kind of reckless streak in him that until now has only really been quietly noticed in Parliament.

Firstly, he shouldn’t have found himself having a lobster dinner with an alleged mobster boss.

Secondly, his claims he knew nothing of the alleged mobster’s identity and that the dinner was not secretive are now being questioned. If he is wrong the cover up will look worse than the lobster.

And finally, in this one very colourful episode he may have neutralised all the ALP’s vulnerabilities over junkets ranging from Steve Herbert’s dog chauffeuring to Don Nardella’s Ocean Grove caravan.