Backbench Beat

First, my sincerest of sincere apologies for being MIA over the last few days. I can only say that the irksome hindrance that is most commonly referred to as "full time employment" is to blame for my absence. While this FT employment thing purports to be a worthwhile enterprise (mostly in a fiscal sense), we all know that in the cold, harsh light of reality, the fortnightly additions to one’s transaction account tend to be offset by the decline in one’s will to live.

In fact, let me just point the finger at one little incident in particular:

Show us your derivatives Daryl

Ahem.

On a lighter note, it is time to celebrate our unsung political heroes. Those among us that are not necessarily at the forefront of policy. Those among us that tend to be pushed out of the public spotlight by their political party counterparts. Those among us that you would not know existed if they were not your local MP (Antony Green being the exception).

Yes that’s right. It’s time to celebrate the backbenchers. In this regular segment, we will look at how backbenchers do their bit for this sunburnt country of ours. We will look at:

• the degree to which they have their fingers on the “pulse”
• how they devote their energies wisely to “making a difference”
• whether they strive to bridge the "gap" between the politics we need and the politics we have
• whether their political "desires" are manufactured or channelled directly from their cruel little souls a la Exorcist
  

As you know (because you are a smart little cookie), a backbencher is an MP that is not a minister or shadow minister. Backbenchers sit in the backbenches (very tricky that).

Episode 1 – The Cheeky Cheesologist (the CC)
Darren Cheeseman is the local MP of the seat of Corangamite. Great Ocean Road territory.

Triple cream brie for me.

Prior to winning his seat at the last election, the Liberals had held the seat for a very, VERY long time. In fact, the existing candidate was so old and decrepit, his next job surely had to be scheduling hip replacement surgery or perhaps even organising his prepaid funeral.

So how did the CC win the seat? Well it was a bit of luck, a bit of demographic change in the electorate, a bit of thinking among the electorate that Workchoices was the devil’s spawn… In fact, in this convoluted hodge podge called 'life', it is not really clear why the feck he won, but he did.

CC’s best hits
Just prior to the election, the CC announced he was commissioning some sort of study to see whether it would be cost-effective to build a stadium in Long Gee so they can get an A-League team.

A fine political promise. Perhaps the suggestion that we abandon the use of the term ‘soccer’ is going a bit far though! Baby steps...

Shortly after the election, the CC’s wife punched out a kiddy and he got all mushy in his first parliamentary speech. Obviously, he was so struck by the moment that for a brief time, the rest of the world slowly fell away…

FOCUS please!

Then it was on to infrastructure in that way where you are announcing to do something without really doing anything. But an announcable nonetheless.

And most recently, water efficiency. Looks like a small dice proposition but you never know, this may be potentially worthwhile even if its not press release worthy.

I expect bigger and better things from the CC in the near future.

Now off to watch Barack...