Last Thursday, on 17 January, Troy Buswell became leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party, in his first term in State Parliament as the Member for the regional south-west seat of Vasse.
Buswell is the fourth Opposition leader in three years and his record of conduct and judgment since entering public life makes his rapid elevation all the more extraordinary.
In the week prior to his challenge, Buswell told reporters that he needed ‘more experience’ before he could be considered for the leadership. Last October, while Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Buswell engaged in a drunken episode in State Parliament that culminated in him attempting to perform a ‘party trick‘ by snapping open the bra of a Labor staffer. He later attempted to kiss and cuddle Opposition police spokesman Rob Johnson in the Parliamentary Chamber while still under the influence. The then Liberal Leader, Paul Omodei, told the media that Buswell had offered his resignation the following morning.
On other occasions, Buswell is known to have made ‘inappropriate’ remarks of a ‘sexual nature’ about Carine Liberal MP Katie Hodson-Thomas in the presence of a number of male colleagues. On the day of Buswell’s election as leader, Hodson-Thomas announced that she would not be contesting the next election because Parliament had become a ‘boys club’.
Nobody wants to be a wowser, but there are limits. Given that Buswell’s drunken boorishness was both very recent and occurred after he already held the senior position of Deputy Leader, it is difficult to accept that he has experienced a Damascene moment since he attained the Leadership.
The West Australian has reported that Buswell has told close colleagues that he will no longer drink in public, unless his wife Margaret is by his side. Presumably this advice is meant to be reassuring, but rather than any behavioral transformation, the idea that the new Opposition Leader is so unable to trust himself that he needs spousal supervision is suggestive of a juvenile lack of self-discipline that is hardly befitting of high political office.
Buswell’s honesty has also been a political issue. At the last leadership spill of the WA Liberal Party, in March 2006, when Omodei toppled the previous leader, Matt Birney, Buswell – who was at that stage the Deputy – allegedly lied to Birney, saying he had voted for the ousted man, when he had in fact backed Omodei. Buswell apparently told Birney that he had supported him even after the ballot had taken place, only later telephoning the deposed leader to disclose the truth.
At the time of the challenge, it was alleged that Buswell had strong links with the former Liberal Senator and powerbroker, Noel Crichton-Browne, which included a meeting that is alleged to have taken place in a car outside Parliament House around the time of the Omodei-Birney leadership stoush. Labor has made much of this meeting in the Parliament, particularly in light of both Buswell and Crichton-Browne subsequently featuring in the WA Crime and Corruption Commission’s investigations in relation to a disputed coastal development.
Leader of the Opposition is a major position of civic responsibility in Westminster-style democracies and the holder can reasonably be expected to set a public example of some propriety. It is legitimate to question what broader implications might be read in to the sudden rise of a character like Buswell.
There seems little chance that Buswell has been elevated because he represents anything particularly novel, sophisticated or of current appeal in an ideological sense.
His inaugural speech to the Parliament was notable for exhorting the neo-liberal ideals that have just seen his Federal counterparts dumped from office, revealing him as a creature from the pre-Rudd age; a political world that has now vanished. It is of specific significance in these days of looming climate change disaster that Buswell gave particular emphasis to his view that the ‘encroachment on our rights and freedoms is in many instances driven by excessive government regulation, especially that enacted in the name of the environment…’
Given what we know of his principles and strength of character, it is apt to revisit an old political cliché and pause to wonder: now that the WA Liberals have decided that Buswell is the answer, what on earth was the question?