Bushranger

Fleming’s touch of 007

INDEPENDENT Commissioner Against Corruption Ken Fleming QC has had a big nine months, culminating in a bombshell report this week into former Speaker Kezia Pu

rick’s corrupt conduct over a two-year period. Mr Fleming QC is legend of the week, maybe too in the eyes of independent MLA

Gerry Wood, who in parliament this week called him “Ian Fleming”, that is, the author of the highly successful James Bond series.

Lack of troops a worry

WITH a Territory election just two months away Labor stalwart Damian Hale was lamenting on radio this week how much of a struggle it is to get people to join the party. That’s got to be concerning for a party that currently holds government with 16 MLAs, and began this term with a further two.

Pollies need courage

AN ex-NT pollie had a few cautionary tales for candidates doorknocking in the lead-up to August’s election this week, revealing he’d been in two punch-ups and had a gun pulled on him while on the hustings back in his day. The former MLA said when he tried to introduce himself to one would-be constituent, the citizen responded with a punch in the face. After a short scuffle, the political hopeful asked the obvious question. “I said ‘I’m just a young bloke trying to make it into politics, why did you punch me?’ Turned out he wasn’t even on the roll,” he said. When another potential voter pulled a shotgun on the plucky would-be pollie he again had to think on his feet. “I said ‘If you shoot me, I’ll get my dad to come back and shoot you’,” he said. “Anyway, he didn’t shoot me.”

Member for Justice?

LANDMARK #LetHerSpeak laws, which allow sexual assault survivors to consent to have their name and story published, passed NT Parliament this week. It’s truly a historic piece of legislation which was incredibly exciting. So exciting probably for Attorney-General Natasha Fyles’ office that in a draft media release her title was “Attorney-General and Member for Justice”. Ms Fyles is the Minister for Justice, and the Member for Nightcliff. An electorate named “Justice” would be quite cool though.

Madam a slip of tongue

IT was the week of Kezia Purick’s extraordinary fall from grace and the rise of Chansey

Paech to the Speaker’s chair. But old habits are hard to break it seems, with both Arnhem MLA Selena Uibo and Nightcliff MLA

Natasha Fyles referring to Mr Paech as “Madam Speaker” in parliament.

No playing favourites

SPEAKING of Mr Paech, the new Speaker was also quick to show he would not be playing favourites when he ordered AttorneyGeneral Natasha Fyles in no uncertain terms to sit down when she tried to interrupt while another member was speaking. Bushie was also delighted to see the new Speaker not on his phone texting.

Bad sign for Bonanni

SIZE does matter, the CLP candidate for Fong Lim Kylie Bonanni learnt the hard way this week. Ms Bonanni was told by City of Darwin to remove her election signage on Tiger Brennan Dr for being too big. City of Darwin outdoor advertising rules, which apply to election signage, stipulate a sign should not be more than 1.5sq m in size. Signs, for the record, also can’t be animated.

High standards a poll must

DOUBLE checking the spelling in your emails is an excellent practice however mistakes still slip in occasionally, which was the case for the NT Electoral Commission this week. One of Bushie’s friends, who is signing up to volunteer for the upcoming Territory election, received an email from the commission wanting to make sure she wasn’t medically vulnerable as a COVID-19 precaution. But the email didn’t say vulnerable, it said ‘venerable’. Bushie’s friend is certainly well-respected but she was taken aback that it was a quality needed to count votes.

Gunner alarms ScoMo

CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner was forced to apologise to Prime Minister Scott Morri

son and depart National Cabinet early this week after the fire alarms went off at NT House. Luckily it was a false alarm.