A talent for self-destruction

THE resignation of  West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell has ended a long saga of inappropriate actions and activities.

THE resignation of West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell has ended a long saga of inappropriate actions and activities by one of the most talented people to hold that office.

The revelation of Buswell's sexual affair with Greens MP Adele Carles, and the misuse of ministerial entitlements while doing so, left Premier Colin Barnett with no choice but to ask for his resignation.

The well-regarded MP will continue serving on the back bench, but he will have a nervous wait for the findings of a review by the state's public sector commissioner into his use of state resources when conducting the affair.

Buswell's entry into WA politics was controversial: he defeated sitting Liberal MP Bernie Masters in a bitter preselection battle for the state seat of Vasse in WA's southwest before Masters went on to contest the seat as an independent, narrowly losing to Buswell by just over 200 votes.

A former president of the Shire of Busselton and an award-winning economics graduate from the University of Western Australia, Buswell was always destined to become a heavy hitter inside the WA Liberal Party. Although his known bawdy tendencies concerned his colleagues long before they became public knowledge.

"He was a ticking time bomb," one senior WA Liberal tells The Australian. "We always hoped his talents would shine and his failures would recede. I guess it didn't end up happening that way."

When Buswell was deputy opposition leader, it was revealed that he had flicked the bra strap of a Labor worker at a drinks party in parliament house.

He was later forced to apologise for sniffing the chair of one of his staffers, writhing around in mock sexual ecstasy, when serving as opposition leader. The actions received international media attention and caused Buswell to break down several times when fronting the local media to apologise for his actions.

There were other controversial indiscretions, such as Buswell grabbing at the genitals of a male colleague, Murray Cowper, when entering the parliamentary chamber, appearing to be intoxicated.

But in the wake of what had already been revealed about Buswell, such instances were, unbelievably, mostly dismissed as just more examples of his larrikin tendencies.

The bedrock of Buswell's ability to withstand the criticisms he received for his inappropriate actions was always the combination of his outstanding performance as a parliamentarian and economic thinker, and the steadfast support of his wife, Margaret Buswell, who came out strongly when the chair-sniffing revelations surfaced to defend her husband, saying: "Troy's not corrupt. He's not an adulterer. He hasn't run off with anyone up there, and that's all going on [in parliament]".

Despite all the revelations, and significant calls for his head from sections of the media, Buswell managed to survive as Liberal opposition leader for most of 2008, staving off two challenges before ultimately resigning to end the media swirl so that Barnett could return to the leadership shortly before the state election was called. Barnett won narrowly and appointed Buswell as his treasurer.

Internal Liberal Party polling showed that Buswell was significantly holding back the party vote when the electorate was unhappy with the Labor government.

The Treasury post gave Buswell a chance to repair his reputation, which he started to do with his policies to improve doing business in the west by freeing up regulation and managing the state's budget during the financial crisis.

The loss of Buswell will be felt by the Barnett government for some time.

The WA Liberal Party isn't exactly overflowing with talent in its state parliamentary ranks. Buswell was one of the best performers both in parliamentary question time and with his understanding of economics.

His former chief of staff from opposition, John Preston, who has also worked for senior Liberals in the federal parliament including Peter Costello, says:

"He was one of the few state MPs I have come across who had the talent to be a senior federal minister. If he was only judged on his policy and parliamentary skills he would have dominated WA politics for years."

Sunday's revelation that Buswell had a four-month affair with Carles came on the back of his separation from his wife and moving in with colleague Energy Minister Peter Collier, after confessing to his actions a week earlier.

The News Limited Sunday papers broke the story with a confession of the affair by Carles, who told Buswell she was going public with their afternoon dalliances before the story went to press. Rumours of the affair had swirled around the inner circle of WA politics for some time, but Carles and Buswell had refused to answer questions about it until Sunday's newspaper story.

On Monday, Buswell fronted the media to confirm he had had an affair with Carles and to confess to a series of misuses of his ministerial entitlements when doing so. These relatively minor abuses included chauffeuring Carles three times in his ministerial car, as well as using his government credit card for accommodation he shared with her in Albany the evening before a series of ministerial meetings.

But it wasn't the first time Buswell had misused entitlements. In December last year he confessed to twice misusing travel entitlements, claiming it was an honest mistake. Combined with the sex scandal and the many bawdy behavioural indiscretions, the breach of entitlements was too much for the Premier, who asked Buswell to resign yesterday even though Buswell had come out the day before and said he would be staying on as treasurer and was "keen to continue on and hand down the May budget".

The Premier had been made aware of the affair at about the same time Buswell confessed to his wife, but as Barnett said in his press conference yesterday, he was only told about the entitlements abuses over the weekend. This information made it impossible for Barnett to keep Buswell in his job.

Veteran Labor strategist Bruce Hawker, who managed the affair allegations against South Australian Premier Mike Rann during his recent election campaign, says: "Buswell's real problem was that his personal life and professional duties became intermingled. Once he had to admit to using public money for personal reasons he was in checkmate."

Barnett has said that he will assume the role of Treasurer between now and the state budget to be delivered on May 20, as well as "for some time" thereafter. But

for how long that will benobody knows.

It is not uncommon for premiers to also take on the job of treasurer, especially in WA. The last time it happened was when Richard Court performed both roles from 1993-2001. Ironically one of the reasons he did so was because he didn't want his then deputy, Barnett, to take on the powerful role of treasurer, even though Barnett had taught commerce at university and served as the head of the state's chamber of commerce.

If Barnett stays on as Treasurer, accusations that his government is a one-man band will be sure to echo loudly from the opposition.

If he passes the job on to a member of his team, there really are only two viable options: his deputy and Health Minister Kim Hames and Attorney-General Christian Porter.

However, Barnett won't want to move Hames from the health portfolio in the middle of negotiations with the commonwealth over its redesign of health funding arrangements. And Porter is responsible for much of the government's agenda before the parliament. Law and order was a key election platform for the Barnett government, and putting a new face into the Attorney-General's role to work with the unpredictable maverick Police Minister Rob Johnson is fraught with danger.

Notre Dame University politics lecturer Martin Drum doesn't think replacing Buswell will be easy: "He was someone that they really relied on. They just don't have replacements with his economic know-how in cabinet."

While the attention has been firmly focused on Buswell and his fall from grace, the actions of Carles are also damaging, not only to her career but to a Greens party looking to increase its relevance in state politics.

The Greens fared well by increasing their share of the vote in the upper house at the last state election, but they lost their balance of power to a surge in the vote for the Nationals on the back of its royalties for regions funding pledge.

Carles was elected to the lower-house seat of Fremantle in 2009 when former Labor powerbroker Jim McGinty forced a by-election after Labor's surprise election defeat a year earlier, the first Green to win entry into the house of government in the state's history.

Holding the seat at the next election is going to be difficult, but doing so after revelations that Carles conducted an affair with a man known for his offensive behaviour towards women will be doubly hard for a candidate who has sold herself as part of the feminist Left.

The Labor opposition is even asking questions about whether Carles's voting patterns were affected by her affair with Buswell, something she has vehemently denied. But her decision to oppose Labor's amendments to the Barnett government's draconian stop and search laws - which gives police the right to stop and search people without the traditional test of "reasonable suspicion" - could hardly have been more out of character for a Greens MP.

While Barnett has stopped the bleeding by forcing Buswell out, there is a danger this scandal could be a turning point for a government that until now has enjoyed popular support within the community.

Without Buswell serving as treasurer, the ministerial line-up isn't a strong one, and Barnett doing the two most important jobs in the government won't be easy. The pressure on Barnett will be immense, particularly given the argy bargy with the commonwealth over GST receipts and health funding.

Barnett was known for his bad temper when he was opposition leader first time in 2001-05, and it showed when he was put under pressure during the election campaign over his unfunded election debate announcement that the Coalition would build a canal from the state's north to alleviate water shortages in Perth.

Throw in the fact that the government is a minority administration, supported by two Liberal-leaning independents, and he doesn't have a lot of room if further scandals force resignations from the parliament and not just the front bench.

The WA economy is the engine-room of the nation, and Buswell had what it took to run it diligently. He just didn't have what it took to run his personal life according to the same standards and that, coupled with his misdemeanours in abusing entitlements, has deprived the people of WA of the best person available to manage the state's finances.