Political lives

TO HIS credit, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull gave a statesman-like speech at the Light Horse Centenary gathering in Israel.

Meanwhile, back home, The Days of Our (political) Lives continue to play out in Canberra and prove far more fascinating than the fictitious afternoon soap opera on the television.

Senate President Stephen Parry (Liberal) outed himself over the citizenship saga, making him the ‘ninth green bottle sitting on the wall’ and toppled off.

Naturally, Liberal and Labor are resisting calls for a forensic audit of all parliamentarians to ascertain if they have been truly and duly elected. We are in comedic Yes

Minister territory now. As Sir Humphrey Appleby advised the Minister, “But Minister, you never have an inquiry unless you know the result.”

Labor politician Penny Wong tells us with her most serious face the Labor Party strictly vets all candidates. Well, she would say that wouldn’t she?

It wasn’t that long back, thanks to the freedom of the press to expose dodgy travel claims, the travel rorts sagas played out and people like Liberal Bronwyn Bishop paid the price for travel expense excess.

In this current crises, how many slippery dual citizens are hiding under the covers of the major parties?

A proper audit cannot come soon enough, so we can be assured of the citizenship integrity of our elected politicians. — PETER KNOBEL, Toowoomba