LIKE ME, the average Australian is wondering why there’s so much fuss over gay marriage. And you know there’s a fuss when federal politicians decide they must have a conscience vote over it . But what’s this got to do with their conscience? The legal recognition of same-sex unions is a pragmatic decision; it’s about whether or not you want to change the meaning of marriage within the Marriage Act.

If you’re religious or archly conservative then you want to stick with the centuries-old concept that marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman, with the aim of having children. If you’re not religious and of liberal views, then you see no problem in a legalistic re-draft of the Marriage Act to include unions of same sex couples.

Sadly, Australian politicians who are leading this debate have taken a ‘winner takes all’ approach: either same sex marriage or no national and legal recognition of same sex unions.

The last few decades have shown the reality that gay couples are stable and can raise healthy, well-adjusted children. If you have any doubt about this I suggest you view a young American’s passionate Facebook support of his lesbian parents. It is astonishingly honest, articulate and heart-felt: http://frontmoveon.org/two lesbians-raised-a-baby-and-this-is-what-they-got/#

Same-sex marriage is a growing trend across the world, even in countries that have strong religious and moral codes. These include Canada, South Africa and Argentina, as well as Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Iceland.

That doesn’t mean we have to follow suit of course, but it does mean we should separate the facts of how we recognise gay couples, from the ongoing emotional fear and loathing of homosexuality.

I fail to see how bringing in a politician’s’ conscience helps this kind of debate. It suggests falling back on privately-held belief systems that rate right against wrong, good against bad, and outmoded, gut rejection moral views of homosexuality that dictate … it just ain’t natural.

The reality is that our scientific and psychological knowledge of sexuality has deepened to the point where we no longer regard homosexuality as an illness to be cured.

Despite more enlightened views and a majority of Australians favouring same-sex marriage, many gay couples still feel rejected because it is Australian law that rejects them. There is a sense that their relationship is not valid or is of a lesser value than heterosexual unions. Certainly federal laws, including the Marriage Act reflect this rejection. They deny same-sex couples basic financial and work-related entitlements because as couples they are simply not a man and a woman.

Same-sex couples and families get fewer leave entitlements, less workers’ compensation, fewer tax concessions, fewer veterans entitlements, fewer health care subsidies and less superannuation. They also pay more for residential aged care than opposite-sex couples in the same circumstances.

There are between 20-30,000 same sex couples in Australia with up to 10 per cent of those couples caring for children. So, clearly the country cannot go on ignoring this social change, because it won’t go away.

Lawyer Michael Sexton has a different take. He says that the institution of marriage is basically worthless, and has lost almost all of its use in Western society.

He asks, even if the High Court were to find in favour of the term marriage covering same-sex unions, “why would anyone now want to adopt a status that has no legal or social significance in present-day Australia?”

I think Michael underestimates how important many people still view a stable relationship sanctioned by the state. We know too that the divorce rate is levelling off in Australia, and formal weddings … civil and religious … are on the rise. (In fact, far more civil than religious).

As the new year begins and the gay marriage conscience vote nears, let’s hope we can stick to a pragmatic debate without the emotion of irrational fears, homophobia and discimination.

As one woman internet blogger on this debate says: “Babies are born of same-sex couples, and no babies are born of heterosexual marriages. Surely your God doesn’t discriminate – well mine doesn’t.”

Michael Berry

JULIA GILLARD’S government is entering the new year with a kind of desperate optimism. After all, what’s the alternative? The Labor Party has to hope and believe that things can only get better.

2011 was indeed an annus horribilis, marked by ministers lurching from crisis to crisis, pausing only to occasionally shoot themselves (or sometimes each other) in the foot, and the chaos was reflected in the polls. But 2012 can’t possibly be as bad as 2011 was. Things have to improve, don’t they? Well, don’t they?

Sorry chaps, but here’s the bad news: no they don’t, and indeed they could actually get worse. The problem is that just as the government finally looks like pulling itself into some kind of shape, with the carbon tax and the mining tax through parliament and the beginnings of a genuine Gillard agenda emerging, the arse looks like falling out of the world economy. Europe is a basket case and the other industrial power houses – the United States and Japan – are in no position to rescue it, even if they had the desire to do. GFC Mark II looks all but inevitable; the only real questions are what form it will take, how severe it will be, and how long it will last.

Treasurer Wayne Swan comments bravely that the demand from China for our resources will insulate Australia from the worst of it, and it is true that our economy is better armoured than most to withstand a crash. But it would be sanguine to the point of nuttiness to imagine that with the world imploding around it, little Australia will remain untouched. At the very least the economy is certain to slow down considerably, and there is no longer the money available for the stimulus packages which protected both consumer demand and investor confidence last time. The Reserve Bank, unlike almost all its international counterparts, has a bit of room to play with interest rates, but that’s about the only tool left in the shed and it is unlikely to be sufficient.

Thus Gillard’s reform program will once again grind to a halt, bereft of the funds needed to grease the wheels. In particular the big ticket items foreshadowed in recent times, like a disabilities scheme, a universal dental service, or any serious tax reform, will be pushed back into the cupboard whence they emerged. And the government will have to devote much of its time and energy in not only trying to cushion the voters against the threat of recession, but in soothing, cajoling and comforting them to try and avoid a collapse of confidence – a task in communications for which both Gillard and Swan have proved themselves to be manifestly unsuited in the past.

At the same time they will continue to be haunted by their twin obsessions: the tyranny of the weekly opinion polls, an absurd distraction regarded as holy writ by politicians and commentators alike, and the ever present spectre of Kevin Rudd. The possibility of Rudd making a successful challenge for the leadership has always been miniscule and nothing that has happened in the last few months has made it more likely: he has mended few if any fences within the caucus and the powerbrokers would eat their own young before having him back.

But within the Gillard camp the foreign minister still has the status of an obsession: sooner or later, perhaps in the next few months, almost certainly by the end of the year, the matter of Rudd must be resolved one way or another. Such is the paranoia that there is even talk of a Gillard supporter moving for a spill before Rudd’s few followers have the opportunity to organise their numbers. The idea is lunacy: far from killing off the threat, it would give it credibility and split the caucus in the process. It would not be a show of strength but an admission of weakness.

Don’s View...

Look at the history of such moves. In 1971 John Gorton took on Billy McMahon by asking his part for a vote of confidence, and lost the prime ministership as a result. In 1982 Bill Hayden called a special party meeting to bring Bob Hawke’s challenge into the open; he won that round but he impetus it gave Hawke made him irresistible a few months later. And most notoriously of all in 1984 Andrew Peacock demanded that his party rid him of the menace of John Howard: the party room refused and Peacock was forced to resign the leadership – to Howard. In politics, as in commerce, you never give a sucker an even break, let alone an opponent.

Just ask Tony Abbott. It is probably too late to bring sense or logic back to the so-called debate over asylum seeker policy, but Abbott’s hypocrisy on the issue has reached truly Stygian depths. He objects to sending asylum seekers to Malaysia, because it hasn’t signed the refugees convention; well no, but nor had Nauru at the time of John Howard’s Pacific Solution, which Abbott now lauds as the acme of policy, and he still wants to turn the boats back to Indonesia, which hasn’t signed up either. The answer must be Nauru, which the professionals say would not work as a deterrent because when it was last used almost all the detainees ended up in Australia or New Zealand anyway.

Well, if it doesn’t, says Abbott, bring back temporary protection visas – the device of psychological torture by which even those accepted as refugees were not given the rights of residents, in particular the right to bring out their families. This actually resulted in more risks as the wives and children of TPV holders themselves had no alternative but to brave the boats themselves. But we’ll think of something – perhaps we could threaten to pull their fingernails out with red-hot pincers to save them from the people smugglers. All in the name of compassion, of course.

And we cannot start the New Year without congratulating John Howard for being made a member of the Royal Order of the Brown Nose by Her Majesty. He will no doubt keep it on his desk next to his boy scout woggle for Janette to dust every morning. And alarmingly, he claims it is a tribute not just to himself but to his country. No, Johnnie, it was just for you.

Most of us like our honours to be Australian.

Plumeria (frangipani)

Plumeria is native to Central America, Southern Mexico and Greater Antilles. The most common frangipani is plumeria rubra which is a deciduous shrub to a medium tree. Flowers can vary in colour from white, cream, pinks and oranges to reds. They also come in multiple colours. Rubra has the most fragrant flowers. Plumeria obtusa is an evergreen, usually in white or pink flowers. Plumeria stenophylla has oleander like flowers which come in shades of cream or white.

Plumeria pudica is evergreen with white or cream flowers, (A new pink is available). There are over 300 named varieties. As new hybrids are produced many combinations of colour as well as plant size become available.

Plumerias generally only branch when they bloom. A high phosphate fertilizer applied once every 2 weeks in the growing season will promote blooming. High nitrogen and lack of phosphate will produce tall leggy plants with few or no blooms. A plumeria full of branches is usually a good bloomer.

Propation from seeds are not true to the parent plant thus producing new combination of colours. Seeds from reds and pinks usually give you the greatest variation. The winged seeds should be inserted into a moist seed raising mix with wings sticking out and the seed firmly in contact with the soil. Keep soil moist in a sunny position. Germination takes about 21 days. Cuttings can be propagated by the following method. Fill a 300mm pot nearly to the top with 2/3 perlite to 1/3 potting mix. Dip end of cutting into water then into rooting hormone and insert about 75mm of cutting into the mix, firming it down. Finish with a 25mm layer of 10mm gravel. Water pot thoroughly and place in a sunny position. Be sure not to over water, only water when pot gets dry. A full root ball should be produced in about 3 months.

We wish all our readers a Blooming Happy New Year! Franz & Sue

Loors Landscaping

GARDEN DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND CONSULTANCY

Phone: 5445 7615 Mobile: 0412 680 801

Fungi play an important role in breaking down dead timber. Small insects find food in the rotting wood, native marsupials feed on the insects and so food is provided for a host of animals which contribute to the diversity of our forests. Eventually rich humus is delivered to the soil to provide nutrients back to the plants. Barung always advises leaving fallen timber on the ground whenever possible. It provides temporary homes for a small menagerie including lizards and is essential to sustaining this “web of life”, breaking down quite quickly in our sub-tropical environment.

Early mornings and late afternoons are good times to spot some of our animals, although many are nocturnal. A chorus of irritated birds can indicate the presence of a python or other reptile hunting in the foliage. Quiet observation of our larger creeks, even Obi Obi Creek in the middle of Maleny, will reveal platypus.

We are so fortunate to have a wealth of diverse habitats on both public and private land to care for and enjoy. Take time off and discover some of the treasures. Regular articles in the Barung newsletter, available on the Barung Landcare website, provide fascinating stories and information about our local fungi, flora and fauna.

BARUNG NATIVE PLANT NURSERY Phone 5494 3151

Porters Lane Nursery opening times: Wednesday – Friday – 9am -3pm

First up, thanks to the first Australians, the Traditional owners of this land who shaped the land we now live in, over the millennia to be a land of diversity and wealth. Their song is written in the landscape, a song that we must listen to if we are to join them as true Australians.

Second up, thanks to all the landholders who are revegetating and regenerating the bush on their blocks. It amazes me that you are all willing to spend so much of your own time, energy and capital on restoring, that for which we all benefit – thank you! Your passion is your land and although it could be seen to be an addiction by some – I’ve got the condition too!

Next, thanks to all the small businesses out there that are now making a living restoring habitat, again for which we all benefit. We are fortunate in the Hinterland to have seen a culture of small business habitat restoration develop over the last 20 years. The Sunshine Coast and Hinterland Eco- businesses lead the way, whether it is in Nest boxes, Wildlife Rescue, Fauna Management and Monitoring, Seed Collection, Consultancy, Education, Nurseries, Revegetation and Regeneration – hopefully you all know who you are, and you are amazing! Congratulations for making ecological restoration your living and taking it to a whole new level!

Then we also have some of the most successful Landcare, Catchment Care and Waterwatch groups who have helped guide millions of volunteer hours and grant funds into ecological restoration works on the Coast and Hinterland. These organisations are a great way for volunteers with a range of skills to come together and make a difference.

Let’s not forget the amazing team who work for the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and deliver the best “Land for Wildlife” Program in SE QLD, “Voluntary Conservation Agreement” Program, Bushland and Conservation Management Programs, community Partnerships etc…etc… We are very lucky on the coast to have such an amazing group of people in the one government organisation.

Last but not least thanks to the amazing Brush Turkey Enterprises team, an amazing group of people, who inspire me and educate me every day, thank you! But let’s not rest on our laurels… there is so much more to be done to stem the critical loss of habitat and ecological connectivity on the Coast and Hinterland. In 2012 we need to be active more than ever to save the amazing ecological diversity that we are all, the present caretakers of.

Ph 0428 130 769 spencer.shaw@brushturkey.com.au

www.brushturkey.com.au

Bombay Mahal MALENY

BOMBAY MAHAL is a little bit of India transported to Maple Street, Maleny. Owned and operated by Sameer Kulkarni and his partner Ron Coxhell, the decoratively lit 90-year old timber building at the top of Maple Street exudes warmth and welcoming energy.

I sat with Sam, under an artistic canopy of his mother’s beautiful saris, for a chat about his approach to food and cooking. In a classic example of life taking us on a long journey right back to where we started, Sam wanted to be a chef from an early age.

“I always cooked at home,” he says, recalling his clandestine forays in the kitchen. “I managed to use up all the groceries in the house (with my experiments) when mum wasn’t around.”

After Year 12 Sam went to catering college in Pune, India, and passed the exam but his family did not want him to go into that industry, considering hospitality a poor career choice. And so he began his working life as a production engineer, having completed a diploma and then bachelor degree. In between he worked as a solar engineer making solar panels followed by three years making random access memory (RAM).

Sam moved to Australia in 2000 to complete his masters in information technology at QUT and subsequently found employment with an IT company on the Gold Coast. While completing his masters he worked at a number of restaurants in Brisbane and got to see first-hand how they prepared their food.

“Many of them cook (enough base) for four weeks, put a layer of oil on top and put it in the cool room,” he says disapprovingly. “They will heat a ladle of base and then just add different meats – it can all taste a bit the same.”

Preparing food in this way is anathema to Sam, having enjoyed his mother’s excellent cooking. Despite working full-time six days a week, she always made sure her family had a good breakfast, and would prepare lunch before she left.

“Then after work she would go for a walk and on the way back buy fruit and vegetables from the market and cook dinner for us while we sat at the table. There were never any leftovers!”

Having taken the plunge and swapped IT for high tea (Indian style), Sam uses his mother’s approach in his restaurants (Bombay Mahal is his and Ron’s third).

“Every day I come in early and do my preparation – it’s all cooked fresh,” Sam explains earnestly. “We don’t have a cool room, just a couple of fridges for certain ingredients.

“I prepare every curry separately – cooking fresh food makes a difference (to the flavour) and our customers appreciate it. And I think it’s better for you.”

Bombay Mahal is now five years old and customers travel from far and wide. With his mother visiting periodically (“my mother brings her own pans from India!”), Sam continues to hone his craft under her guidance. Now they cook side by side, happily sharing recipes and techniques.

Life has come full circle, it seems.

This is the last Chef Connections column. I thank all those who have contributed to this interesting forum about food.

Julie Shelton is Leader of Slow Food Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

For more information on Slow Food go to www.slowfoodsunshinecoast.org.au

…about people who change their lives to settle on the Range and why they choose to stay

Hank and Wendy de Vries and their daughter Tamarah have been on their 11 acre co-owned property in Montville for only four weeks. And while they struggle to adapt to a rural, and at times rugged, environment after life in suburban Brisbane, they are sure this is where they belong.

Why did you come here?

Wendy: Hank and I met in Africa 37 years ago. He came over on one of his business trips to Rhodesia. I had an identical twin sister so he could choose between the two of us. But I was the quieter one, so he chose me. We got married and decided to come out to Australia in 1975. This is one of the first places he brought me to and I loved it here. But for all sorts of family reasons it took us 34 years for us to finally get here.

Now my twin sister lives here, just one and a half kilometres the other side of Montville. She and I are both distance education teachers and we work at the same school in Caboolture. As a family we’ve had different ideas of what we would like to do here. Wedding gardens is one idea. We love gardening. Tamarah and I are also looking at a business designing and making wedding and cup cakes aren’t we?

Tamarah: Yes. Mum and I started making cupcakes about five years ago as a home-based business when we were living in Cleveland. My great aunt in South Africa is a world-renowned cake decorator. She has written two books, although she’s been blind in one eye since she was eight. She’s won many cake shows in Paris, New York and England. She’s now 76 and is coming out here in February, and she’s given mum and I all her cake cutters. So that’s how I decided to follow her and start a cake business.

What did you have to change in coming here?

Tamarah: Well, I couldn’t handle the city life. It’s a place where you don’t even know your neighbours across the road. As for mum and dad, it’s always been their dream to live up in the hills where there’s a lot of water.

Wendy: As a family we have always been very open to change. We have travelled a lot … Papua New Guinea, Bougainville Island and several third world countries. So, I don’t think in ourselves we have changed, or have had to change anything in coming here. It’s just always been our dream to live somewhere in the country in a beautiful environment and set up a small family business.

Hank (pictured inset) started out as a boilermaker but now he is an apprentice mentor for the mining companies. He’s away for seven days, then back for five. It’s a new role created by government because they are finding that young people are dropping out of their apprenticeships. So Hank gets in there and encourages them, helps them with their maths or their English, and he liaises with their teachers. He loves the job.

Wendy: We are a very close and happy family… very emotional and gregarious and we have a lot of fun and laughter together. Life is never dull and we never know what’s going to happen from one moment to the next, and we are very open to things happening.

I have never known a place where you can go into a shop here and the shopkeeper will give Tamarah a big kiss and a cuddle.It’s fantastic. You don’t get that in the city. The people here are outstandingly friendly, open and honest.

Tamarah: Living in Montville is basically what it was like living in Zimbabwe many years ago. You feel more at peace; there’s less stress. It’s country people. You just don’t get that in the city. For example, when you stand back and look at the kids here in Montville and Maleny, they’re completely different to kids down on the Coast and in the city.

Wendy: Yes. Being a teacher, I am always watching how children behave. I see the kids who work behind the counter at IGA here, and they are so polite… they’re beautiful! It’s the way that their parents have brought them up.

What would keep you here? Wendy: Ah … we are here for life!

Tamarah: No more moving! It’s been very unsettling for my sister and I, having been to thirteen different schools.

Wendy: There’s so much to do here; so much to be involved in, and I feel we haven’t really tapped into it yet. We want to become more community involved.

Tamarah: I said to mum when we first arrived, it takes special people to live up here. Not everyone can.

Wendy: Yes and that’s why we finally feel at home here. Hank too has always been a mountain person rather than a sea person. I like the water so I am so thrilled that we have a spring here on the property.

I love gardening, but we might have bitten off more than we can chew with this property!

There’s no doubt the Chinese are coming; but we’re not ready for them on the Coast and Hinterland, and I think we should be.

I’m not advocating direct flights into Maroochy from Shanghai, or erecting Mandarin signs on our beaches, but I do think we should be on the same page when it comes to the enormous value of international tourism.

Look at it this way. The Coast’s traditional job creators are urban construction, retail sales and tourism. Everyone agrees it’s a pretty thin portfolio even though for years councillors and business development gurus have tried to plant new industries, they’ve seen most of them wither on the vine.

Right now, government and council are actually saying to anyone in the construction industry – “Go north or west young man, the mines are calling.” It’s not exactly the best economic planning model, but we’ve had the boom here, now here comes the bust. Construction as a job creator has collapsed.

As for retail sales, the only activity in many stores from Coast to Hinterland right now is the sound of their piped music. That’s because, say social commentators, we are putting our money in the bank instead of through the tills. You and me feel that really bad economic times are ahead. So, that leaves only tourism with any real growth potential for our region.

I personally think that attracting visitors is the most beneficial long-term future for the Sunshine Coast because it is based on protecting and enhancing our environmental assets. It also supports those businesses that attract visitors – anything connected with the ocean, accommodation, sports venues including golf, the burgeoning natural/organic food growers, artisan craft shops and galleries, restaurants, major entertainment events, theme parks, gardens – indeed anything that makes us look, taste and feel good.

So where does China come in? Well, if you gave an overseas airline ticket to every man woman and child in the UK and they all left Heathrow at once … that’s how many Chinese are travelling overseas in a year … more than 60 million. It’s staggering I know and Queensland is starting to get its fare share.

China is already Queensland’s third-largest international market and one of the fastest growing, with nearly 200,000 Chinese visiting in the 12 months to the end of June this year, 25% more than the previous year. And boy, can they spend. Chinese travellers handed over $381 million on their trips to Queensland in the year ending June 2011 – $48 million more than the previous year.

That’s because there’s now an enormous Chinese middle class who want to travel. As for the seriously rich, in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai alone there are almost 500,000 millionaires.

Coast tourism bosses have had their sights on the Chinese tourism market for some time, while mining billionaire Clive Palmer unveiled plans to make his recently acquired Hyatt Regency Coolum resort a focus for Chinese visitors. Good for Clive but there is still a lot to do says the new head of Sunshine Coast Destination Ltd, Steve Cooper.

A group of Chinese travel agents I spoke to recently on the Range were polite but underwhelmed by the overall quality of accommodation and public facilities. One even commented that there wasn’t a really good Chinese restaurant on the Coast.

Apart from private investment, part of creating a vibrant tourism industry is building public infrastructure – roads, light rail, commuter services, and public facilities at parks, gardens and beaches.

Remember too, that whatever we do to create a more attractive Coast to attract Chinese, Kiwi or American visitors, we also create a better place for ourselves as residents.

Michael Berry

CHANGE in a restaurant is generally a good thing: a different menu every year at least, a new chef every so often, and a new fit-out every decade at least.

Managing that transition, however, can be tricky, and in the case of Maleny Hotel’s Bistro Bunya, change is happening slowly but strategically.

The hotel’s new manager, Toby Sargent, took up his position before Easter and one of his first initiatives was to engage a new chef. Clearly, transformation is on the agenda and so I ventured to Bistro Bunya to investigate.

Hailing from Perth’s beaches, Kyle Merillo’s Clark Kent looks and manner belie his Italian heritage. His father migrated as a boy with his family in the 1950s and Kyle was introduced to the kitchen by his Italian grandmother.

“I grew up cooking with Nonna, who is from Napoli – she used to cook for the Italian Embassy. She’s been a strong influence,” he declares proudly.

Kyle competed his apprenticeship at the Convention/Exhibition Centre and went on to work at a number of 4-5 star hotels. Last year, he spent six months in Europe, eating and exploring his way through England (including a visit to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea: “a bit disappointing”), Scotland, Wales, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Germany and Holland.

His favourite spot was Spain, where he fell in love with San Sebastian, a small fishing village on the Bay of Biscay, just across the French border.

“The tapas bars in Spain are great – really different! I love the idea of little bits and pieces coming out, sitting around talking, eating, drinking…”

I began to wonder if there’s a party animal lurking under that cool white-jacketed exterior… I asked Kyle if he thought the tapas concept would work in our region.

“We definitely have the right climate for tapas and we like the more relaxed and social approach to food,” he replied thoughtfully.

“The challenge is educating the customers to move away from the ’3-course meal’ format Australians are used to, and be more adventurous. We have regular customers who have the same meal each time they come in.”

Kyle has brought back a few ideas from his travels that you can find on the new, revised menu at Bistro Bunya.

“Our plan is to work up the Bistro and develop a good reputation for food and a good eating culture,” he explained.

“It’s not fine dining but we want to offer good, honest, tasty food that our customers are happy with and we’re proud of.”

Kyle is enjoying combining the long hours in the kitchen with time at the beaches near Mooloolaba (“body-surfing is my passion”) and visits to restaurants in the region – purely for research, of course.

It’s an exciting time to be at the helm of the Bistro for this well- travelled chef, who has come a long way from cooking in Nonna’s kitchen.

Julie Shelton is Leader of Slow Food Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

For more information on Slow Food go to www.slowfoodsunshinecoast.org.au

THERE is an old political saying: A man who will rat once will rat twice. Obviously it has escaped Tony Abbott, or if he has heard it he assumed it only applied to Labor renegades; because Peter Slipper has form.

Originally elected as a member of the National Party in 1984 he lost his seat in 1987 and defected to the Liberals, who were at that time in Queensland seen as even more hostile to the Nats than the Labor Party. This act of treachery was rewarded when he returned to parliament in 1993; in 1997 he was appointed government whip and in 2002 elevated to the position of parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, John Howard.

Howard disposed of his services in 2003 but he remained on the front bench as parliamentary secretary to the Finance Minister, Nick Minchin, for another year. During this period he continued to practise as a lawyer, and, improbably, as a priest of a fringe religion known as the Traditional Anglican Communion.

By the time the coalition lost government in 2007 there were moves to dump him within his electorate of Fisher, led by a savage campaign in the principal local newspaper, the Sunshine Coast Daily. But he retained control of his branches and was re-endorsed for the 2010 election as a candidate for newly formed Nat-Libs.

However, stories about his massive parliamentary expenses were already accumulating and last year the federal police conducted a brief investigation; no charges were laid but he was forced to repay $14,000. (The National Audit Office is currently considering a petition signed by 2700 concerned Sunshine Coast residents into Mr Slipper’s use of travel entitlements over a decade. Last year Mr Slipper’s expenses bill was more than $700,000 – Ed.) He was by now considered a serious risk by his coalition colleagues, with no hope of promotion. Labor realised this and backed him for the plum job of deputy speaker against the coalition’s official candidate, Bruce Scott. Slipper won and basked in his victory.

It should by now have been obvious that his loyalty to the coalition was at best negotiable, but neither Abbott nor anyone else made any serious attempt to win him back; on the contrary, the former Howard minister Mal Brough emerged to threaten his preselection in Fisher, with the open support of Howard and, it appeared, the tacit endorsement of Abbott.

In a hung parliament in which every vote was vital, this was political stupidity of an almost suicidal dimension. In contrast, Labor was cosseting every member, even Craig Thomson, the former union official under a police investigation. Slippery Pete was allowed to slip away.

He was not the first parliamentary rat, or the most outrageous. Much has been made of Howard’s seduction of Labor’s Mal Colston, whom he bought with the Deputy Presidency of the Senate in 1998. But the tradition of bribing political opponents with the promise of high office is an old and dishonourable one, reaching back almost as far as federation.

Don's View . . .

Alfred Deakin, now regarded by the Liberal Party not only as a founding father but almost a patron saint, was a serial offender, moving his Protectionists effortlessly between the left and right, and finally uniting with his mortal enemies, the Free Traders, to wrest the Prime Ministership from Labor’s Andrew Fisher. Not long afterwards Billy Hughes deserted the Labor Party to join the conservative Nationalists in the top job and in 1931 the Tories of the United Australia Party purchased Labor’s Joe Lyons as their leader. More recently Gough Whitlam attempted to secure the numbers in the senate by suborning the Labor rat,

Vince Gair, with the offer of an ambassadorship. For Abbott to bewail the enticement of Peter Slipper as the death of Australian democracy shows a lamentable lack of knowledge of the real history of democracy in Australia.

Nor has any convention been broken by the appointment of a speaker from outside the government ranks. In the parliament of Westminster itself it is common for speakers to preside over governments from both sides, while in Australia state parliaments have more than once resorted to the device of appointing independent speakers to prop up the government’s numbers. In any case, Abbott’s own frequently stated position is a preference for an independent in the job, and only a week earlier he was trying to persuade the independent Rob Oakeshott to nominate. Spare us the confected outrage.

Nor does the argument that Slipper is not a suitable person for the high office of speaker stand up to scrutiny. In the Australian parliament the speaker’s job is not so much a high office as a sinecure. It is very well paid and the perks are terrific, but it does not entail much onerous work: on the rare occasions that hard decisions are needed, the speaker invariably takes the advice of his clerks.

In the past it has almost invariably been the gift of the government of the day to one of its loyal and long serving members who has not been sufficiently talented to make the ministry; a consolation prize for has beens and never will bes. Among the speakers of the last 20 years have been Leo McLeay and Steve Martin from the Labor side, and Bob Halverson, Neil Andrew and David Hawker from the Libs – not exactly names to conjure with. Back in the Whitlam era, Jim Cope – the last speaker to resign in office – gained the job largely as a result of his reputation as parliament’s snooker champion. And Harry Jenkins, for all the praise heaped upon him in the last few days, was never more than a good-humoured and personable journeyman.

This, of course, is where Slipper is vulnerable: he is neither good-humoured nor personable, and even before becoming a serial rat, he was carrying a lot of political baggage. Julia Gillard can only hope that he can survive the barrage of mud which will undoubtedly be flung at him by the parties he has spurned – and, of course, that this time he stays bought. After all, a man who can rat twice can rat three times.

Towards the end of his marathon political career Billy Hughes was asked: “You’ve joined every other party, Billy; why not the Country Party?” Hughes famously replied: “Oh, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere.” Someone should ask Peter Slipper if he has plans to join the Greens next. After all, Hughes was 90 when he died in office. Slipper, at 61, still has plenty of time.